Silhouettes of birds over the sunset

Silhouettes can be bold, striking, stunning images with intense color, and that dramatic feel to them can enhance your image collection and evoke feelings and emotions from your viewer.

Creating silhouettes is the opposite of what you normally do in bird photography. Instead of pointing your shadow towards the birds with the light behind you, you put the light in front of you, and the bird between you and the light. This means your shadow is actually pointing away, 180-degrees away from the bird.

With silhouettes, you want to make sure you have a clean background, free of any clutter or distracting elements. For bird photographers, we’re most likely shooting up into the sky, so the background will be open and clean. Also, start out with very distinct shapes, or move around to get the best point of view, so the images are clear and distinct.

To get lots of color behind the bird, take your silhouettes during golden hour and up to half an hour after sunset, or half an hour before sunrise. Shooting early or late in the day adds color, so try for the bold colors of early morning or later evening.