Boy playing basketball
Silhouette of a boy playing basketball
Silhouette of a boy playing basketball
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Aug, 2015Views
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Awards
Phantom Drone
Contest Finalist in Silhouettes In The City Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Rule Of Thirds Photo Contest v4
Contest Finalist in Silhouettes And Negative Space Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in San Pedro, CA, which is part of Los Angeles.Time
The time of the day was approximately 5:30 pm in August, so the sun was still pretty high.Lighting
I saw that the sun was right behind the boy playing basketball, so I knew that it would make for a fantastic silhouette. I metered for the sky close to the sun, which made the boy and the basketball hoop black. I then took a few shots and tried to click the shutter right when the boy jumped and threw the ball. I knew that having the boy, ball and hoop separated would clearly define the silhouettes.Equipment
This shot was taken with a Nikon D800. It was very bright, so hand holding the camera was not an issue.Inspiration
I came to this location to photograph the Korean Bell of Friendship, but then I saw the boy playing basketball with the sun right behind him. Since I love taking silhouette photographs, I jumped at the opportunity and took a few photos of the boy. Any time I get a chance to take silhouette photos, I will do it, I love them that much!Editing
I did do some minor post processing in Adobe Lightroom. Next to the basketball hoop on the left, there were some other people sitting in their chairs, and leaving them in the photo would have taken away from the impact, so I cut them out, leaving just the boy, the ball and the hoop. Other then that, I turned the photo into black and white to take the little bit of color out, decreased shadows and increased highlights and whites, and that was it.In my camera bag
I always have my beloved Nikon D800 with me, and always bring my two older Nikkor wide angle lenses with me, which are the 24-120 mm and the 28-200 mm (which this photo was taken with). These lenses might be older, but still do a wonderful job in most photographic situations. I also usually pack my Nikkor 50 mm prime, and 105 mm macro for portraits or close up of flowers or other things. Always with me in the car is a tripod for those low light or night photography opportunities. Lastly, I do have a variable polarizer filter and ND big stopper with me.Feedback
Silhouette photos are pretty easy to do, yet they are so much fun and can be so intriguing because since the subjects are totally black, much is left to imagination. The viewer needs to be able to understand in an instant what’s happening in the picture. Important is to remember to meter for the sky (not directly for the sun, but the bright sky surrounding the sun), which turns the foreground objects/people black. Get low – and if you can’t get low enough, get your subjects up higher. Your subjects should be full length. The sky dominates the photo – the horizon should be towards the lower third in the image, so your subject appears in front of the sky which means avoiding a distracting background. Good separation means that you can clearly see what’s happening in the image. The edges are sharp and clearly defined. In this case, I waited for the boy to jump and throw the ball, so he, the ball and the hoop were clearly separated.
