Shooting Silhouttes.

Paul Overstrom

Paul Overstrom

Member
Is it as simple as exposing your camera to the light source and the the subject steps in front . And then the subject will be undeexposed so he/she/it will appear black?

any tips to shooting proper silhouttes. Apperture and depth of field play a role at all?

a good example in this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFX-r-k0WyE


Thanks in advance.

Ps. im sure color correction plays a role too?
 
Yep, pretty simple, exposure was set for the clouds / sun. It takes some serious neutral density filters to shoot towards the sun. Set the exposure level of the brightest parts of the frame to between 90 and 100 IRE. If you blow the highlights, a nice orange sunset will turn white and bleed into other pixels.

I would suggest you stop the aperture down a bit. This will give you greater depth of field (in this example, allowing both the clouds and tree to be in focus).

You can always color correct and add a color wash (like sepia), but I find it is better to plan in advance what color temperature I want to shoot at. In the example, there is definitely some correction (and possibly a composite on the bird shot), but you could do it pretty close in camera.


Jason
 
thanks jason. Any reccomendation on what nd filters to buy


and what do you mean set the exposure to 90 and 100 ire?

it that another word for shutter/fstop or db
 
Use the ND's on your camera. Most cameras have them. Another option is to iris down, but down go past f11 your image will suffer due to the diffraction of the light.

An IRE is a unit used in the measurement of composite video signals. Its name is derived from the initials of the Intitute of Radio Engineers.

To put it simply... 0 is black, 100 is white. Keep your zebras (the zebra striped exposure indicators) on 100%, that way, you'll always have properly exposed images with no gross blown highlights. The zebras serve as sort of a safety reminder. They've saved me many a time when I've been running and gunning or doing doc work and wasn't paying to close attention to the highlights on the little LCD.
 
Shutter and FStop are also completely different things, one being a mechanical function inside the lens, one being in the camera.

Db is a measure of gain applied to the video signal by the DSP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top