Although it may come across as a bit of a cliche sometimes, silhouettes in Street Photography can be a great way to create fantastic looking images which pack a punch. They are relatively simple to create with the right lighting conditions and correct camera settings. They also create an air of mystery as the faces of the subject are hidden and it’s left to the viewer to fill in the blanks. For me the best images don’t require too much post processing out of camera and silhouette images are no exception.

Let There Be Light!

It may sound obvious, but the key component when creating silhouettes in Street Photography is strong light. However, this light needs to be pointing in the right direction in relation to the subject. The light should be shining on a background behind the subject, while the subject should be in the shade creating a high contrast, as in the images below. It sounds simple, but sometimes you need to look hard to find these conditions, even on a bright clear day.

I’ve found the best time of the day for this is either early in the morning or late in the evening before dusk when the sun is low. During the Winter months the sun is lower all day than in the Summer, therefore creating more opportunities. This kind of light also allows you to take a shot of a subject with the light shining behind them towards the camera lens, again causing a silhouette as in the example below. In this case the silhouette isn’t as crisp as the examples above due to the light hitting the rear of the subject, but the long shadows still make for a dramatic effect.

Sometimes not all of the subject is in the shadow, causing the image to appear as a half silhouette as in the image below. This is desirable in this case as the face is still obscured, however with further post processing the rest of the body can also be made darker as I will explain below.

Sometimes the sun can be hitting both the subject and background together in the same direction, in this situation a silhouette won’t be created. An example of this is in the image below, you may notice that the subject is fully lit from the side and not in the shade, creating a long shadow towards the wall.

Camera Settings

So which camera settings should you be using when taking these kind of shots? Generally in bright sunshine the aperture should be narrow, I usually go straight for f11. I will also manually set the shutter speed to around 1/1000 second to avoid the camera automatically giving you a slow shutter speed to compensate for the small aperture. This is more important for moving objects. This does two things, it brings down the overall exposure of the shot and it will also allow you to point the focus/exposure area to a bright part of the image and expose for that area while keeping everything in focus, this will in turn under expose the subject in the shade creating a silhouette. You can also lock the exposure in for the background then focus on the subject with most modern cameras. On the Fujifilm cameras you can use the AE-L button on the back of the camera, by holding the button down while pointing the focus point on the brighter area, then take the shot when focused on the subject while still holding the AE-L button. This can be fiddly, so I would suggest changing the location of this button to the front of the camera where your index finger sits to make things easier.

It’s important to try some test shots when you first go out as you may need to tweak the shutter speed. Also keep an eye on your ISO settings to make sure the camera doesn’t ramp it up if you’re on auto ISO, if this does happen then manually set the ISO to something low, around 200-300.

If it feels like you’re not seeing as much of a contrast as you’d like then try changing the metering mode. With Fujifilm cameras such as the X-T3 like I use, you can use spot metering which will expose only for the area where the focus point is, again make sure the bright background is selected when you do this, the subject in the shade will then be under exposed and appear as a strong silhouette. If you use multi metering mode then it may try to expose the bright light and dark shadows all at the same time, reducing the contrast.

Post Processing

The image below was taken with the subject in the shade against a well lit background, however the subject is still slightly visible so just requires some tweaks in post processing. I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my images and I’ve shown a screenshot of the basic settings for this image. The only changes that have been made are a reduction in the highlights and whites so the background isn’t blown out.

In order to create more of a silhouette for the subject I usually change 3 other settings in Lightroom which are contrast, shadows and blacks. As you can see in the settings below, I’ve increased the contrast to 41, dropped the shadows to -62 and dropped the blacks to -42. The blacks should only require lowering slightly in most situations, be careful not to under expose other parts of the image with this setting. This has created a much stronger silouhette than in the image above.

Although I enjoy using silhouettes in my images I only try to use them in certain situations. I find that images which are fairly minimalist are best suited to this technique, where there isn’t a lot of clutter or distractions. It’s also important that the outline of the subject is well defined and that it’s obvious what you’re looking at without any unusual shapes sticking out.

I hope this guide was useful, please feel free to comment below with any feedback,