Silhouette photos are a beautiful way to capture a moment in time, and the iPhone is almost too good at capturing all the details. But what if you want a true silhouette? Photographer and educator Emil Pakarklis has a trick up his sleeve that will help you outsmart your iPhone and create the perfect silhouette photo.
First, find a spot where you have light fading into the shadow, creating short lighting. This is where you’ll want to shoot from the shadow side to create your silhouette. For example, Emil found a beautiful archway in the shadow, approaching sunset, and he wanted to create a silhouette of a person against the archway.
To create the silhouette, Emil swipes upwards where it says Photo and clicks on the three circles to bring up filters. He swipes all the way to the left to find Neo Noir and increases the contrast while reducing the color. Then he goes to 2.5 to fill the frame with the arch. Finally, he taps and holds to lock the exposure and focus on the brightest part of the image, creating a more contrasty scene by making the darks even darker.
Emil also suggests finding a subject to walk through the frame, creating a dynamic element to the photo. In his case, he asked one of the children of a family sitting on a bench to walk into the frame and act as his subject. Burst mode captures the movement and ensures you get the perfect shot.
But why stop at silhouettes? Emil’s Capture It All online course teaches you how to use your iPhone to capture everything around you, from composition and storytelling to photographing people, recording videos, flying a drone, and more. If you want to use your iPhone to its fullest potential, check out the full version of Capture It All and start capturing the world around you.