Why Does Silhouette Photography Pull At The Heartstrings?

My passion for photography started when I learned I could trigger emotion in people with an image. The emotion I aimed for was what I like to call the “heartstrings”.

Plucking the chords of these emotions fed my desire to get better in my craft. I wanted to pull out something inside them that they did not know was there.

I also wanted to stir the emotion in their hearts, but I needed a nudge deeper below the surface of their heart first.

Of all the thousands of images I have taken, and the countless sessions I have organized and been part of, there is nothing quite like getting a shot that stands out from everything else. My goal with every photo session was to try something new, and unique, and weave some artistry into each picture.

I tried my best to never venture too far off the rails when it came to photography manipulation. There is a line that can be crossed, and the image then becomes too fake and loses its emotion.

I have found that sometimes the less you see in details, the more details appear with imagination. Our minds are incredibly powerful, and when you throw love and emotion into the mix, magic happens. This is very true for silhouette photography.

Taking away the features of someone’s face, and relying on the emotion of body, sky, soundings, action, and movement, incorporated with the shadows of your subjects clouded in darkness, that is when the real light of a silhouette photography can shine through.

The best times to take silloutte photography is right after sunset. The sun needs to be set, so the sky still has enough light that it can play a part in your backdrop.

It also helps if your subjects are on the elevated ground from where you are, this may require a small hill or you, as the photographer, being low to the ground.

Dial down your ISO and also increase your shutter speed, darkness will be your friend in this situation.

These rules are not firm, and I have broken many of them, but they are a good guideline. Art has no rules, just play and experiment until you reach your goal.

The title image at the very top (or bottom) of this article is the only image I pushed the envelope of creative manipulation. The photo was incredibly important to my mom. She wanted this one done because it was one of the last images of her and her husband together. She wanted to have the moon behind them both. It required me to take two separate shots with two very different lenses, and then overlay them on top of each other in software as layers.

I am in the process of mending my heartstrings. I have taken a step away from photography as I work through some personal healing. This is allowing me time to go back and reflect on the images I have taken for others, and feel and pull out the emotion and love I put in.

I am trying to remind myself that there is beauty in the darkness, and that beauty is knowing that it is always possible to find the light again.