Silhouette at sunset

The constraint is a deliberate underexposure of the subject. A silhouette works by placing your subject against a bright background — a colourful sunset sky — and exposing for that background so the subject falls to a clean black shape. Put the sun behind and to the side of your subject, meter off the bright sky (or dial exposure compensation down a stop or two), and shoot f/8 at ISO 100 for a sharp, saturated sky. A recognisable profile against the colour is the whole picture.

Watch out for a shape that reads as mush. A silhouette lives or dies by its outline, so pose the subject in clean profile with space around limbs — arms away from the body, gaps you can see through — not a blob facing you head-on. And place the horizon and subject where the sky colour is richest; if the subject’s edges still glow slightly, pull exposure down further until they go truly dark.