Mysterious, edgy, and minimal— silhouette photos are ever so popular. Even before the invention of cameras, people used silhouette artists to make silhouettes of themselves with black and white paper.

Do you love silhouette photos, but the thought of taking one intimidates you? Fret not. We are here to help with these 12 tips.

1. Backlighting Is Key

Have you taken black background photos? Then, think of silhouette photos as the opposite of them.

In black background photography, you put the light on your subject, keeping the background dark. In silhouette photography, you keep your subject in the dark while having a relatively bright background. So, the essential element to taking silhouette pictures is backlighting.

2. Choose the Correct Time

Dawn and dusk are the perfect times for naturally backlighting your subjects. You get a beautiful silhouette when you put your subject against the rising or setting sun. In addition, the colors are vibrant during the blue hour and golden hour, making your silhouette photos stunning.

3. Find the Right Subject

Simplicity is the name of the game in silhouette photography, so aim to pick one or two subjects to stand out. Having a cluttered scene is unflattering in silhouette photos.

People are the ideal subjects for silhouette photography. The outline of a lonely tree, animals, or birds also looks breathtaking against a bright background.

4. Pose Your Subjects

Photography is a two-dimensional art, and you have to know some tips and tricks to represent what you see realistically in your photographs. That's why proper lighting is so essential in photography. You want to balance your shadows and highlights to make your photos come alive.

To avoid getting a flat-looking silhouette picture, you want your subject to have shapes and angles. So, pose your models such that the contours of their faces are visible. For instance, instead of looking directly at the camera, let your models face sideways.

For animals, make sure their profile is evident with their distinctive features.

5. Pick the Perfect Location

With your silhouette photos, you want your background to be free of distractions to make your subject's silhouette shine. So you should pay attention to your location.

You want to choose places with a lot of space without distracting elements like bushes, trees, and rocks. Beaches, desserts, and grasslands must be your go-to locations for taking beautiful silhouettes. Whichever location you choose, the sun must be behind your subject.

Also, a dark room with a window can get you perfect silhouettes. Place your subject against the bright window, and you have your silhouette.

6. Tweak Your Exposure Settings

Since silhouette photos are usually darker and moody, you can purposefully underexpose them with your camera settings. When you compose your scene, increase your shutter speed a stop or two to intentionally make your scene dark. You can do this when you are shooting in manual mode.

Try exposure compensation if you're using other programmable modes like aperture priority or shutter priority on your camera. When you use exposure compensation, you're telling your camera to let in less light than what the camera's light meter suggests.

7. Use Spot Metering

Your camera has many metering modes, from center-weighted to matrix metering, but spot metering is best for silhouettes. When you choose spot metering, your camera calculates the exposure settings based on the light reflected off a particular spot.

If you want your subject to be dark, you can meter for the brightest spot in your scene instead of the subject. The camera metering system will think that your scene is very bright and calculates settings for a darker image.

8. Focus Correctly

When you spot meter to the background in your scene by half-pressing the shutter button, your camera also chooses the background as your focus point. So, it is a good idea to switch your lens to M or manual mode. This way, your camera can meter the background while you manually focus on the subject.

Another alternative is to enable the back-button focus on your camera. This separates the focussing mechanism from the shutter button and assigns it to another button on your camera. The actual method to enable back-button focus is different for different camera brands. So, check your manual to find out how to do it.

9. Pay Attention to Your Aperture

As with every other type of photography, you want your subject to be in sharp focus in your silhouette photos. To ensure this, keep your aperture above f/8. Opting for a shallow depth of field is not a good idea for silhouette photos—you need some clarity and sharpness in the background too.

10. Use a Tripod

Blurriness can spoil the look of your silhouette photos, so ensure to pack a sturdy tripod to get tack-sharp images.

When taking silhouette photos, you're working with less light than usual at dawn or dusk. Also, you will use a narrow aperture to keep your subject in proper focus. So, your shutter speed may not be enough for handheld shooting. The solution to this problem is using a tripod.

Remember, bumping up your ISO is a no-go. You want your silhouette photos to be crystal clear.

11. Try Artificial Lighting

Not a morning person or a night owl? You can take silhouette photos during the daytime with artificial lights. You don't need a nice diffused light for silhouettes. Instead, aim for a relatively hard light to make your photos edgy. You can opt for beauty dishes and grids to modify the light.

12. Don't Forget to Edit

Follow our tips above, and editing your silhouette photos will not take up much time. You just have to do the basics like increasing contrast and tweaking highlights and shadows. Then, play around with the clarity and saturation sliders until you get the look you want. You can also add a mask and make your subject completely dark while maintaining a brighter background.

It is a good idea to shoot in RAW mode for silhouette photography. If your photos are in RAW format, you will have more control while editing.

Take Silhouette Photos That Stand Out

Silhouette photos have a professional look and make you wonder if they are made with complex lighting. But the fact is they are simple to take. You don't even have to touch your speedlight or strobe. You can get gorgeous silhouettes with just natural light.

Practice makes you perfect, so what are you waiting for? Grab your camera (and a subject), and head out to catch that sunrise or sunset.