Ah the silhouette… the antithesis of HDR photography. It may be considered a cop out or an “easy” trick, but there’s something great about a photographer surrendering to the limitations of an extreme lighting situation or, better yet, creating one themselves.
A great silhouette shouldn’t make you want to see more details. It has captured exactly what it should have, and more shadow details would only take away from this real-world scene that resides far beyond the extremes of what a camera can capture.
The 30 photos below are all great examples of silhouettes at their best. Not all are 100% contrasty, perfect silhouettes; but each raises the bar on this type of photograph in one way or another:
Share a link to your best silhouette photo on 500x in the comments down below. And if you want more inspiration of the contrast-y variety, check out the high-contrast black-and-white street photography of Junichi Hakoyama… really incredible stuff.
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