Silhouttes are a gimmick, a cheap trick for hacks who can't make a real picture. As a professional photographer, it's my obligation to turn my nose up at such trite ploys. At least I think that's what I'm supposed to say, but here's the truth: I freaking love 'em! Have a picture of yourself standing on the beach at Lake Nostalgia? Boring vacation snapshot. But a silhouette of yourself standing on said beach? Ooooh, artsy! Granted they can be a bit overdone at times, and if anybody belongs in a silhouette shooters' detox, it's me. But when done well, I think a good silhouette can tell a story quite nicely. As evidence, I present photographs A and B:
These are from separate graduations I've shot over the last two weeks. Check out how eerily similar they are. Besides thinking I apparently need to be more original with my compositions(I'm currently suing myself for plagiarizing...myself), I was struck by how much more I like the silhouette. Maybe if the grads in photo B had more expression it would be a different story(or if I did a better job framing out that light in the back), but I think the silhouette tells you everything you need to know, does it cleaner and quicker, and is much more likely to catch someone's attention when they're scanning a Web site or, if they're really, really old, a newspaper. Maybe those are just the clouded thoughts of an addict, but I'm curious to hear other people's opinions.
