Summer is a GREAT time to pull out your camera and try some new Photo Tips and Photo Exercises!  How about putting your hand to Shooting Silhouettes!  But be prepared to get comfortable with dark images rather than bright ones.

If you love taking photos, you may have been told at some point to look for the best light.  Look through magazines and see if you can identify the light source in every photo.  As your walking to the park, be aware of where the sun is and how the sun’s position affects your photos.  Where would the sun land on your kids’ faces?  How would you adjust yourself or them?  But with all these light focused questions there is a problem.  We negate the beauty in the lack of light.

Photography is always teaching me something.  This year, I’ve been processing my own beliefs and barriers with the issue of light.  I’ve found myself going inward and facing the fact that I’m not comfortable in the dark.  Brian and I are in the midst of a couple big life changes right now, and I feel like I’m groping in the dark—trying to find my way.  It’s exhausting at times.  I just want to see light, and if I get a little, I want more.

But darkness has an amazing role too.  The darkness isn’t just dark:  it defines where the light exists.  Darkness helps us see how bright the light is.  As I mull these thoughts over in my heart and head, I’ve been trying to give myself freedom to shoot in the dark.

When we were in Angkor Wat, Cambodia this year, the kids stumbled upon a long, dark tunnel.  When you reached the middle of the tunnel, you could barely see your own hand held up in front of you—it was super dark with the sound of sleeping bats overhead.  The kids ran ahead, laughing and giggling, tripping and making me so nervous.  When they got to the end, they stopped and waited for me and Brian.  I stood in this dark tunnel and spotted them at the opening.  The darkness surrounding them, and the light that came colliding from behind, was breath taking.  There was no better place to start shooting but in the middle of the dark tunnel.

These types of photos are considered Silhouettes.  Often we think of Silhouette photos happening only when there is a beautiful sunset.  But anytime the background is brighter than your subject, you have the opportunity to try a silhouette.

The key to Silhouettes is to take away the light.  Instead of focusing on adding light, let yourself exhale and take away light.  But let’s start at the beginning.

Photo Recipe for Silhouettes!

Ingredients:  Unless noted otherwise, the Aperture was f3.2 / I played with the Shutter Speed trying 1/60th or 1/100th of a second /  ISO 320

Directions:

1.  Find a space where the background can be brighter than your subject.  (for example; your kids playing in front of a bright window, a beautiful summer sunset, a dark tunnel in the bowels of Angkor Wat’s temples?  ).

2.  Turn your camera to Manual mode.  Gotta do it!  No escaping it for this one, but trust me, you’ll be fine.

3.  Focus on your Subject.  Go ahead and take the shot.

4.  Look at your photo.  Are your subjects bright or dark?  We want them to become dark, like the kids in these photos.

5.  If your kids aren’t dark enough, adjust your Shutter Speed so it opens and closes faster.  For example, if your Shutter Speed is 1/80th of a second (or your camera may say 80), speed it up to 1/150th of a second.  If the kids still aren’t dark enough, speed it up even more.

6.  Quick fixes.  If your photo still isn’t looking like a silhouette, you may be to zoomed in on your kids.  Think of a sunset silhouette or these examples.  See how the kids don’t Fill the Frame?  There is lots of darkness around them.  With a beach sunset, the subjects are often small and the beach/sunset big.

7.  If you are close but want it darker, you can always take our photo into Lightroom and up the Blacks or Contrast.  These photos are all straight out of the camera, no post process done to them.  But sometimes I up the Blacks if it didn’t happen straight out of the camera.

One more tip

Make sure your kids have light behind them and not a dark object.  In this next photo, Blaze fell back laughing and the dark frame of the door is behind his head.  So it’s harder to see the outline of his silhouette.

But in this next shot, his head fell forward more, and there was only light behind him.  See how his silhouette stands out so much more?

The kids were having so much fun playing some kind of Patty Cake game, that it made for a great opportunity to capture their hands in the middle of that bright light.

Play around with Silhouettes this summer.  Allow yourself to fail and try again and again.  Instead of looking for the light, watch the light dissipate and see what beauty can be found in the darkness.

(Aperture f/2.8, SS 1/400th of a second, ISO 320)

xoxo,

m

*The BIG, Fall CONFIDENCE Workshop Announcement is coming in the Newsletter!  Find out what cities you voted for, and when we are coming!  Priority Registration starts the moment you get your Me Ra Koh Newsletter!

**Dive into Summer this year with your camera and kids!  For more fun Photo Tips and Exercises, check out our Award Winning DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box!!