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Creating A Silhouette
Photography is not so much about taking pictures as it is about creating art from within the known universe. Unlike traditional forms of expression where an artist works with a variety of abstract emotions and ideas to produce media, photographic art captures a real-world entity to produce abstract emotions and ideas. One could say that photography is the negative exposure of other forms of art. With this abstract thought in mind it is only fitting to explore silhouette photography.
Before setting up the shot, let’s take a moment to review our understanding between front light and back light. Most often, photographs have a majority of the available light to be dedicated to front lighting, this is to say we want to reflect light off the front of the subject to expose details that render the subject recognizable. This is generally why we use camera-mounted flash, or have the subject face the light source. Back lighting a subject means the light source is projected directly toward the camera and is sourced from behind the subject. When there is a higher ratio of available light dedicated to back light, the subject becomes dark as highlights are overcome by shadows. Read the rest of this entry »











