Silhouettes

The best time of the year to take this shots is during the fall, since the position of the sun is lower, and it will allow you to keep the sun on that position for longer.

All you need to do is to place your subject in front of a very bright light source so they are in the shadow. Meter and lock the sky’s exposure in Aperture Priority Mode with the subject out of the frame, then recompose and take the shot.  If you are shooting manual you can get even more creative, underexposing for 1 or 2 stops can deepen shadows and create very dramatic images.

Be aware of merging shapes: you want to make sure that your silhouettes are not merging with other ones. For example a person walking and his shape getting mixed with a street pole.In some cases this merging can work to your advantage, for example a couple’s silhouettes showing their individual shapes but merging in some areas can convey the message of togetherness.

As for composition make sure you locate yourself where the sun or your light source are strong. Is better if you spot meter as its more accurate, meter off the brightest cloud or lightest point in the sky. Check your histogram and ensure you are skewing to the left reflecting more and deeper shadows.

You have to be careful and be creative on your skies, sometimes with these technique they can be flat and lose their punch, is recommended the use of some sort of color filter on the camera, or work around this on the digital darkroom.

Some creative ideas for silhouettes

Shoot indoors: places like churches can create great images, source your light from a colorful stained glass window.

Fill the frame with a full silhouette shape, as the sky can get flat a more complex shape will make the image more interesting

Keep the silhouettes simple, people need to recognize them right away, otherwise people will lose interest

Here is an example: (this was meter off from the outer light from the sun)

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Photo walk in San Francisco…

As part of a business trip I decided to spend a couple of days taking photos around one of the most photogenic cities in the US. Be prepare to find all kinds of people, places and diversity. We tried to hit the major sites, but did also quite a bit of walking around hunting for photo opportunities.

I use my Rotation360 bag and my 2 Olympus bodies (E3, E410). Took out as well my 50-200mm 2.8, 11-22mm 2.8 and my 8mm fisheye. Also took my AMOD GPS receiver here is the route followed the first day…(This view was developed with Microsoft Pro Photo tools)

Day 1

We started early morning (6:00 AM) to take shots of the golden gate bridge from the San Francisco side. There is a place called Vista Access, you can either drive or take a cab to this spot. There is a spot that provides a view to the bridge. From there you can hike your way down a path to Marine Drive. All along the path there are different perspectives to the bridge, lots of great opportunity shots, Unfortunately for us, fog didn't clear at all. Prepare yourself for a hike, we walked down Marine Drive, then down to Mason Street, passed the San Francisco Bay and Palace of Fine Arts. (We didn't stop on what it could be great shot opportunities including the San Francisco National cemetery). We walked down to Divisadero Street and took the bus for route 30 to take us to Ghirardelli Square (I recommend the transit pass for a day which would include also the famous street cars). I also recommend the little breakfast place there after a really long walk.

After breakfast we walked to Lombard Street (the famous crocked street). If you arrive from Hyde Street be ready for a hike upwards, you can take the street car. If you come down Leavenworth street you will arrive to the lower level of Lombard Street. I was disappointed as there was too many people already so get there early, but there are no really good vintage points to take a good photo that shows the street features.

We walked down Leavenworth and right on Jefferson to Fisherman Wharf. On your way there, there are lots of opportunities from the food stalls preparing sea food as well as all the colorful people hanging there. You can walk down Pier39 to see all the seals, it was very crowded on the side of the sea lions so I took a vintage point on the other side, setup my tripod with a 2.0 Teleconverter.

Fisherman’s wharf is loaded with little touristy shops great candid shot opportunities. After a break we decided to go back to the Golden Gate Bridge on the other side to see the sunset and some bridge night shots.We took a cab and were dropped off at the Golden Gate Vista. We looked for different vintage points, one thing we didn't try is to walk around the Golden Gate National Recreation Area which has some tall hills and could provide very unique vintage points to the bridge, but at night is not illuminated and seems you can lose your way very easily at night. My last advice is drive there, we were stranded there for 90 minutes waiting for a cab at 9:45PM and bring some layers as is very windy and very cold.

Day 2

Our last day we decided to walk around and look at other possible nice sites on the city. Certain GPS devices might have a problem keeping a lock on the location due to the proximity and height of the buildings, as you can see on the map.

We went down to Sansome Street off of Market Street to take some shots of the large number of bikes parked on the streets, there are several of this bike parking lots that provide great photo opportunities.

We later went to Yerba Buena Park which provided great opportunities to show San Francisco’s architecture as well as great candid people shots.  Go to the fountain on the second level of the park and spend some time looking for the little details.After that we walked down on Mission Street towards the bay and had lunch in the best Mexican Restaurant I have eaten in the US called Mexico DF on Steuart St. We arrived at Pier 2 and walked down the bay for a couple of hours before going to the airport.

We didn't get to visit all places, but San Francisco is definitely a place to take candid shots, lots of lively people and great modern architecture.

Visit my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/a207001392

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