How to Take Silhouette Photos You’ll Love

Stunning Silhouette Photos Guaranteed to Inspire Your Travels- A gorgeous temple at sunset in Old Bagan, Myanmar

Photos composed using silhouettes are shrouded in drama, mystery, and more than a drop or two of romance. I love silhouette pictures for what you don’t see as much as for what you do; It’s the lack of light that ignites the imagination. It isn’t hard to take silhouette photos; it just takes an understanding of the elements needed to make them pop!

The First Step in Learning How to Take Silhouette Photos

Understanding Backlighting

Man in silhouette with an umbrella walks past a neon American Flag screen

When you take a photo of a subject with the light behind them (backlit)––say on a sunny day––your subject will appear in shadow. That’s because the camera can’t set the exposure for both the subject and the light simultaneously the way our eyes can.

It’s the reason every time you try to capture your friends in front of a beautiful sunset; it never quite looks the way you saw it.

Focus on Your Subject, Expose for the Background

Silhouette Photos Men, working on a rickety, handmade scaffolding, repair a temple in Old Bagan, Myanmar.

Now that you understand backlighting, you’ll understand why the key to creating a great silhouette photo is focusing on your subject, as I did here on the men and the scaffolding in a temple in Myanmar, and exposing for the background, which is the light streaming in the background.

Refining the Silhouette

Take Control of the Exposure

Your subject is backlit and in shadow, but you want it to be completely opaque, not something muddled in-between. Your camera can only do so much. This is why you need to take control of the exposure to make the most of your silhouette.

Stunning Silhouette Photos Guaranteed to Inspire Your Travels-A man navigates his boat with a bamboo pole near Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia.
Stunning Silhouette Photos Guaranteed to Inspire Your Travels-Kids near Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia.

If you photograph on automatic, it’s a good time to learn how to adjust your settings manually. For example, if you touch the screen to focus on an iPhone, you’ll see a little sun icon pop up. That represents your exposure. Dragging your finger up or down will lighten or darken your image. Check your camera’s manual for how to do it yourself.

Once you’ve figured out how to play with the exposure, slowly reduce it (i.e., decrease the light) until you achieve your desired result.

What Subjects Make a Good Silhouette?

When thinking about how to take silhouette photos, any subject can work––buildings, people, wildlife, nature––as long as the outline is clear, interesting, and recognizable. In this situation, expressions are irrelevant, colors worn or type of clothes mean little.

A Springbok silhouetted against the setting sun
Silhouette of a tree and mountains in Namibia with the sun setting

Pay attention to clean lines. If you’re photographing more than one thing, make sure outlines don’t overlap in weird places, or you’re back to that blob again.

Best Times of Day for Outdoor Silhouette Photography

The best outdoor silhouettes are taken around sunrise and sunset when the sun is relatively low on the horizon to ensure full backlighting. It also doesn’t hurt that sunrise and set typically deliver beautiful colors and backgrounds.

Stunning Silhouette Photos Guaranteed to Inspire Your Travels-Cut out from the background like paper dolls, travelers and locals cross the Ubein bridge in Mandalay, Myanmar
Silhouettes of people fishing off a boat, and the silhouette of mountains behind them at sunset
Stunning Silhouette Photos Guaranteed to Inspire Your Travels-A lone acacia is dwarfed by a Masai Mara sunset
Stunning Silhouette Photos Guaranteed to Inspire Your Travels-Sunrise over the ocean and near a swimming area where two people in silhouetter are wading through the water. Cape Town, South Africa.

Minimize Sun Blowout and Flares

Photographing at sunrise or sunset also means you’re pointing your camera toward the sun. Great for shadows, not great if the light is so bright, it overexposes parts of your image or casts flares. An easy fix is to hide the sun behind your subject: a person, a tree limb. You get my drift.

Silhouette of a man backlit by the sun in silhouette



Cool Stuff Straight to Your Inbox

Receive inspiring travel stories, gear recommendations, and travel and photography advice.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!


50 thoughts on “How to Take Silhouette Photos You’ll Love

  1. Amrit Rana says:

    Everything is so incredible and so much better than I could have ever imagined. I’m honestly speechless.

  2. Pingback: Easy methods to Take Silhouette Images You will Love - Brand Rator

  3. Soniya Sharma says:

    Everyone silhouette drop of the drama and mystery about and then two of romance. Moreover, shoot silhouettes the subjects light darkness that ignites of imagination.

  4. Angelyn says:

    Each photograph is beautiful in its own way. I don’t think I can choose a favorite! But….. The one of the Ubein bridge keeps coming back to my mind….wondering where all the people were going and where are they coming from….what are their lives like……many unanswerable questions…….LOVE IT!

    • Susan Portnoy says:

      Thank you for your kind words Angelyn. It’s funny, I do the same thing, imaging where the people in photos were going, what they were thinking. I think it connects me more with the image.

  5. Jet Eliot says:

    Absolutely lovely photographs and silhouettes. Each one highlights the beauty of the people and the venue, tells a story, yet provides peace. Just a quick note about the third one at Ding Darling, there are no egrets in that photo–there’s an ibis and shorebirds. Many thanks for this gallery of delights.

I would love to hear from you! What did you think of the post?