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SILHOUETTE PHOTO ASSIGNMENT

WHAT IS A SILHOUETTE PHOTO?
"Silhouette photography is a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood in a picture. A silhouette is defined as a view of an object or a scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Pictures like these often don’t convey a clear story, and leave part of the image up to the imagination of the viewer.
The keys to taking a silhouette picture are: choose a strong subject with a defined and recognizable shape; turn off your flash to have as little light on the front of your subject as possible; get the light right by having more light shining from the background than the foreground; frame your image so that the brightest light source is behind your subject; and make sure the silhouette shapes are distinct and uncluttered."
-Karishma K. -Smashing Magazine

STEP 1: Read 10 TIPS FOR STUNNING PHOTOS
(this an iPhone tutorial, but the techniques for shooting silhouettes with a DSLR are the same...)
STEP 2: Watch (20 seconds) HOW TO SHOOT A SUNSET SILHOUETTE (iphone short)
STEP 3: Watch SILHOUETTE PHOTO TUTORIAL -7 TIPS FOR SUCCESS
(also an iPhone tutorial, but as before, but the techniques apply to shooting silhouettes with a DSLR)

STEP 4: PHOTOGRAPH -SHOOT MULTIPLE SILHOUETTE IMAGES BASED ON THE TECHNIQUES MENTIONED IN THE LECTURE, ARTICLE AND VIDEOS.

TIPS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT:
•Put the light behind your subject.
•Expose for the background -not the subject. You want them to be black.
•This is an exercise in reducing the photo to basic elements -simplicity is very important when composing silhouettes.
•Make sure there is nothing growing out of the subject -this will ruin the effect.
•Use your imagination when creating your photos.  
•Think in terms of the concepts we’ve discussed in class -composition! 
•Experiment with your camera angle until the scene shows the elements in the most pleasing balance.
•For most silhouettes, it's best to get very low...
•You do not have to take these photos outside, you can shoot silhouettes in front of windows too... just try and make the backgrounds uncluttered...

FINAL PRODUCT: SUBMIT 2 AMAZING SILHOUETTE images in Google Classroom.
•Pick your two best silhouettes.
•Use Photoshop to crop and adjust the image tonality.
•Submit your cropped and adjusted images in the Silhouettes Google Classroom folder.
•A proofsheet of 20 images is required.

SILHOUETTE LECTURE

SILHOUETTE EXAMPLES