SHORT AND SWEET

1. You can photograph birds in a tree against a bright sky and not get silhouettes if you overexpose the image significantly. Expose for the birds and don’t worry about the sky blowing out. Then, in post-processing, replace the sky with one that makes sense. This way you’ll have a good exposure on both images.

2. Many photographers don’t think about using a wide angle lens for portraiture, but it is very effective in creating a different interpretation of a person. This kind of environmental portrait connects a person with his or her environment. I used a 16mm focal length for this shot of a Karo tribesman in Ethiopia.

3. Many large cemeteries have artistic and exceptional beautiful statuary that make great subjects. Here I photographed an angel in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, and then I used Photoshop to composite it with a dynamic sky. Always look beyond the subject itself and imagine what it could be.

4. Shooting into the sun forces the meter in your camera to underexpose the picture which is what you want when photographing silhouettes. A key factor, though, in determining the exposure is the placement of the sun in the frame. The closer it is to the center, the more influence it has on the camera’s meter. §