silhoetteContre~Jour; meaning ‘Against the Light’.

Contre-Jour photography places the light behind the subject, turning the subject into a silhouette.
Silhoette photography is much more about shapes and patterns that it is about recreating a given scene.

Here is how you achieve Contre-Jour photography:

The first obvious step is for you to place your subject in-between yourself and your light source (which could be artificial or the sun).

Most often, silhouette photography involves photos of landscapes so it is better to have a small aperture to ensure that your whole scene is in focus. Setting your camera to aperture priority will ensure that you achieve this.

The next step is to slightly underexpose the shot. By doing this you are creating more saturated colours – brighter, richer colours. This will also make your black blacker (so your silhouette will be well defined)

Your metering mode should be on selective metering so that you are able to be specific about where you want your camera to gather it’s light reading from. Don’t let it take the light reading from the subject that you want to create the silhouette out of otherwise your subject will be perfectly exposed and your background will be whitewashed.

Using a tripod is not always necessary – but it will ensure that the edges of your silhouette shape are very well defined.

Now Snap away!!

Something else to try – take a Contre-Jour image of a transparent subject (thinking leaves, flowers, chiffon dresses or fabrics). You won’t need to underexpose as much and the light will create a lovely glow through your subject.

The above images are from this site…