Dash of Inspiration – June 27, 2011

A Dash of Inspiration…A Cup of Creativity by Doreen

The Beauty of Silhouette Photography

I think most of us are drawn to the mystery found in a well done silhouette.  Perhaps it’s because our own imaginations are allowed to fill in the missing details, so we could never be disappointed.  To me, it’s like reading a well written mystery; we are given some basic information about the characters and the scene, but it’s up to our own mind to conjure up the missing pieces and create a complete picture to accompany the story.  In art, silhouettes have been around for centuries as a form of portraiture.  All of us have seen some famous examples such as; Beethoven’s portrait from the18th century, the Mudflap girl that we still see today on the mudflaps of big rigs and of course the story of evolution from ape to man.

In photography, while a sleek black silhouette combined with the right surroundings can make for a powerful and emotional subject, you can also give the silhouette a bit of depth and realism by letting a touch of light come through as I did with my Retirement Greeting Card.  I used a silhouette of the fisherman, but combined it with a grungy, canvas background texture and let that along with the light seep in just enough to give his shirt a bit of texture and to give the dried grasses in the foreground a little glow.  This makes the whole scene feel more realistic.

So, for your weekly dose of inspiration, enjoy these 50 Beautiful Examples of Silhouette Photography from our friends at Noupe; and for those of you who would like to learn some tips on How to Shoot Silhouette Photography I’ve provided a link to a great article from Photography 24Seven.

Happy Shooting!