Wild Art: Silhouettes

A lone fisherman made a picturesque scene as he is silhouetted by the setting sun on a quite Saturday afternoon at Kakaako Waterfront Park. (Kent Nishimura/The Photo Bistro)

Silhouettes are always fun to make. The dictionary defines “silhouette” as an “image in which only the outline shape of a dark subject appears against a lighter background.” This word came from Etienne de Silhouette, the Minister of Finance in France way back in 1759. He cut out portraits of people from black paper and pasted them on light-colored backgrounds. Here, at Kakaako Waterfront Park, this fisherman was silouetted by the setting sun. You can see the light slightly washing over him.

Usually, the bright sky serves as the background for silhouette shots. You can also use water backgrounds, shaded subjects against atmospheric backgrounds like haze, fog and smoke, and sunlit backgrounds (as in the picture above demonstrates.)

Over the next couple of day's i'll be posting silouhette shots and stuff from my advernture at Kaka‘ako.