Capture a perfect silhouette

Find your ideal subject, then set up your camera to render it as a distinctive, dark shape against a bright sunset

When you’re out shooting, you’ll have discovered that silhouettes sometimes happen and sometimes don’t! This is all down to how your camera’s light meter reads and interprets the scene and sets the exposure values.

To take control of this process, you need to take charge of the metering duties, and basically tell your camera who’s the boss!

1 Set Spot meter mode

There are three types of metering on most cameras: Multi-Zone, Centre-Weighted, and Spot. The first is best for general use, the second isn’t needed at all, and the third gives the ultimate precision. Precision is what you need here, so switch to Spot. Remember to switch back when you’re finished, though, or you’ll think your camera’s gone wrong later!

2 Hold down AE Lock

Target a medium-to-bright area of the sky with your active AF point (this usually doubles as the spot meter) and make a note of the exposure in the viewfinder readout. These are the settings you need for a silhouette. If you have an Auto Exposure Lock (AE-L) button, you can press it to lock these settings. If not, you can often set it up in the Custom Functions.

3 Reframe and shoot

Once you have the spot meter’s settings, hold the AE-L and reframe the scene. Focus on the shape you want to silhouette, and shoot. Check the rear display: if the silhouette is too bright, meter from a brighter part of the sky, hold AE-L, and reshoot. If the overall scene is too dark and underexposed, meter from a darker part of the sky, lock AE, and reshoot.