Those silly silhouettes

Wikipedia defines a silhouette as; the dark shape and outline of someone or something visible against a lighter background, esp. in dim light.

A group of young adults and teenagers play basketball.

Over the years I have made my share of photos where the subjects were in silhouette. I enjoy them, but I rarely go looking for them. They just kind of happen. Sometimes it is because the background is incredible and sometimes it is because the subject is not.

I still remember a portfolio critique I had with the director of photography at the Minneapolis Star when I was sill in college, (yes, they had cameras back then).

She told me that a silhouetted image in a newspaper was a cop-out and to shoot such a photo was just an example of laziness on the part of the photographer. I guess her words made an impression on me as I have remembered them all these years, but to be honest, I don't completely disagree with her.

Her point was that if you are going to take the trouble to photograph people you should be able to see their faces and get some good expressions. I agree. I do think that sometimes it can be a good thing to let the reader (viewer) use his/her imagination as to what the expressions on the faces of the subjects might be. I know that when I look at the image above of the basketball players, that I tend to see the subjects as faces of my friends or at least of young people I had seen playing before. You might even imagine yourself as one of the people in the photo since you can't see who they actually are.

A batter gets a hit during a softball game at a local park.

On the other hand sometimes I will use the silhouette in an effort to make an interesting photo from a pretty UNinteresting photo assignment. The softball photo at the right is just such a case. I had been assigned to get a photograph to illustrate softball as a recreational activity here in town. When I arrived at the diamond I found that there was a pretty unremarkable game going on and that to get an image that was going to grab someone's attention I was going to have to try something a little out of the norm in the way I approached the photo.

Fortunately for me the dusk sky here in Southern Colorado can make for a striking back drop to a silhouetted image. I try not to use it too often, but from time to time I don't think that it is a bad way to go.

I guess you might say that I get a little lazy from time to time.