Weekly Assignment #152: Sunset Silhouette

Nikolai

It's been a while... Ran out of ideas, and the class seem to run out of students... But... may there is some new kids on the block? :wink

Let's make it easy this time: take your subject for a walk around a sunset and take her/his silhouette. Your subject should be a prominent part of the frame, not a spec in a corner.
Technique is easy: pick up your exposure settings from the sky close to the sun (do not include the sun itself though - aim aside or block it with a gobo of sorts, e.g. your thumb). If needed, adjust levels/curves in post to achieve complete lack of details on the subject.

For an extra credit complete your entry with C-theory analysis.

Let's get some sunset silhouettes, shall we?

tinamarie52

I have been absent for a while, too. I think I can learn a lot from participating. Thanks for bringing the WA back.

SamirD

Students may not be present because of day jobs, but keep posting the assignments! When you miss class, you have to make up the assignments, no exceptions.

Ohiohiker

Here is my go at this. I had my boys out the other day and the sun was setting and Trevor was practicing his juggling of a soccer ball. So placed him between me and sun. Tried to use him to block the sun but with the action sometimes the sun was visible.

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I might try some more in the next few days.

Nikolai

Thank you Chris,
good entries!

Kav

In flight over Africa:

Nikolai

Kav wrote: »

In flight over Africa:

Pretty cool, thanks for the entry!
I wish you stopped the lens down to get the lowest shutterspeed possible and hence get the rotor blur...

Kav

Thanks, looking back that would have been much better, but I took this after having a slow shutter fiasco. I was shooting in shutter priority with a 1/125 a sec shutter to get a nice blur on the rotors. But we unexpectedly came across a desert oasis. And what did we find there? Ostriches, baboons, antilope, some huge flying birds, and so on. I even saw a cheetah chasing down dinner. Words can not fully explain the awesome. Just one itty-bitty issue... I never took my camera off of shutter priority. So I flying along at about 100 mph, with a slow shutter speed on a helo that has about 13,000 horse power shaking it. So I took a few hundred photos of the animals doing there thing. 3 kinda came out. I didn't even notice it until after we had left the oasis. I was pretty torqued. So I was bound and determined to get some clear shots. Hence the very high shutter speeds for this photo. I'm going to have to give another go when I have a chance.

Nikolai

Kav wrote: »

Thanks, looking back that would have been much better, but I took this after having a slow shutter fiasco. I was shooting in shutter priority with a 1/125 a sec shutter to get a nice blur on the rotors. But we unexpectedly came across a desert oasis. And what did we find there? Ostriches, baboons, antilope, some huge flying birds, and so on. I even saw a cheetah chasing down dinner. Words can not fully explain the awesome. Just one itty-bitty issue... I never took my camera off of shutter priority. So I flying along at about 100 mph, with a slow shutter speed on a helo that has about 13,000 horse power shaking it. So I took a few hundred photos of the animals doing there thing. 3 kinda came out. I didn't even notice it until after we had left the oasis. I was pretty torqued. So I was bound and determined to get some clear shots. Hence the very high shutter speeds for this photo. I'm going to have to give another go when I have a chance.

Ouch, that must have hurt :-( yeah, shooting fast moving animal from a fast moving vehicle requires all your camera speed bits... That's why I love and use user settings when I go on a serious shoot where, I know, I'll be under pressure.

KingdomSeeker

Power Poles in The Sunset
This was taken along I-20 in SE Arizona.

Nikolai

KingdomSeeker wrote: »

This was taken along I-20 in SE Arizona.

Please allow me to repeat: "take your subject for a walk around a sunset and take her/his silhouette. Your subject should be a prominent part of the frame, not a spec in a corner."
Sorry, no go.

gorila

I took these at the eclipse. Critiques pls?ImageUploadedByTapatalk1338793127.510397.jpg

gorila

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1338793152.698953.jpg

gorila

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1338793182.833518.jpg

Nikolai

I understand the excitment about the eclipse, but this assignment is about the subject, not about the light source.
Please allow me to repeat: "take your subject for a walk around a sunset and take her/his silhouette. Your subject should be a prominent part of the frame, not a spec in a corner."
Human, preferably.
Sorry, no go.

gorila

Sorry

Alsocass

I tried taking a silhouette on an overcast morning. I am still learning how to take my camera off of the auto setting... actually all I did in this one was to put it on manual, but I didn't actually manually adjust anything (still have no idea what P and those other letters mean). I have the canon tutorial which is interesting and useful, just using these weekly assignments as a motivation to put them to use. I find that I read the tutorial but fail to put them to use... I think because I read to much and forget it all. I want to pick one thing and focus on it.

Why is sunset better than any other time of the day?

Eveman

Just Hanginin'
Just hanging upside down....



Just hanging in the womb...

Eveman

opps...just found the sticky with the rules. My 2 post above weren't fresh. they were archive. Sorry. still getting familiar with this forum. just joined.

Nikolai

Eveman wrote: »

opps...just found the sticky with the rules. My 2 post above weren't fresh. they were archive. Sorry. still getting familiar with this forum. just joined.

That's OK! take a couple of fresh ones and post!

Nikolai

Alsocass wrote: »

I tried taking a silhouette on an overcast morning. I am still learning how to take my camera off of the auto setting... actually all I did in this one was to put it on manual, but I didn't actually manually adjust anything (still have no idea what P and those other letters mean). I have the canon tutorial which is interesting and useful, just using these weekly assignments as a motivation to put them to use. I find that I read the tutorial but fail to put them to use... I think because I read to much and forget it all. I want to pick one thing and focus on it.

Why is sunset better than any other time of the day?

Sunset is the easiest time of day to get a decent silhouette as the sun is low, hence more objects on the ground can be in a correct position between your lens and the light source. Sunrize is similar, but ususally more difficult to work with (for numerous reasons).