A windblown pine standing before flushing clouds. A jogger on a ridgeline. Nearly every professional photographer’s portfolio contains a handful of silhouetted images. The strong, stark, simple images are pleasing to the eye. While such photographs may appear difficult to produce, the technique is actually relatively simple. And it is worth learning, even for casual amateurs, because the results are striking.

Silhouettes are created when foreground subjects are not illuminated with the same strong light as the background. This usually occurs at sunrise and sunset, but shadows in front of office towers and cliffs can yield the same effect.

The fundamental rule of silhouette photography is: Focus on foreground, expose for background.  If that sounds confusing, don’t worry. A digital camera will allow you to experiment till you get it right. All you have to do is this:

•    Set your camera to “program mode” and turn the flash off. Pressing the shutter halfway down—with the silhouette in the centre of frame—will activate the autofocus. (You can recompose the image as long as you don’t release your finger.) Now take a photograph and evaluate the result. 

•    Can you see details in the object you are hoping to silhouette? If so, adjust the camera’s exposure compensation (+/- button or dial) downwards (try -1.0 as a start) and shoot again. Alternatively, if your background appears too dark, tweak the +/- up a bit. Just keep going until you get the result you want. 

A few other tips: People make great subjects for silhouette photography, but rather than standing still, have them do something—jump, run, look into the distance. Trees are also great—the older and more weathered the better. Look for one standing alone, because a group of trees will appear too busy.

With silhouettes, as with most photography, simple usually works best.