How to Make Silhouettes From Photos

Video Transcript

"Hello. I'm Alex Compton with Luminescence Photography in Pahrump, Nevada, where we specialize in capturing the true spirit of your loved ones and special occasions. I'm going to demonstrate for you how to take a silhouette shot. I'm going to take a screen, and attach it to some kind of pole simply because I don't have one that's already on a stand. If you have one on a stand, great. Then we need some source of light to go behind the screen. In this case I have a low wattage flood light in just a basic clamp light. I'm just going to use this stool to clamp it on, and adjust the light to where it lights up behind the screen. You will have to make some camera adjustments and you may have to adjust the strength of the light behind you depending on if you want a pure white essence, or if you're okay with a certain glow then you can change the color of the light behind you. On your camera make sure that you turn the flash off. Essentially this effect is made by having a white background, and one light shining back behind me on to that reflective screen. I have to maintain my body position far enough away from the screen that the light doesn't bleed over and show onto my profile. When you have the light set, then you simply darken the room, and voila, you have the makings for a silhouette shot."