In this week’s assignment for her 2020PhotoChallenge Jude is asking us to use strong backlighting to create a contre-jour image where the subject becomes a silhouette.

Shadows

Contre-jour, French for against daylight, is a photographic technique where your camera is pointing directly toward a source of light. As everyone will have told you from when you were a young age though neither you nor your camera should look directly at the sun! So I’ve gone out at my favourite time of the day, dawn. In those few moments between nautical and civil twilight, whilst you await the sun to appear above the horizon, what little light there is creates fabulous silhouettes enabling us to capture the shape rather than the details.

Shadows 2

The first shot is my favourite but I had to also include the one above because of the Egret!

44 thoughts

  3. Nothing beats a good sunset – beautiful photos Becky, and the dark shading gives more drama to the colour. I am having a problem with viewing my posts on the Reader. Could you please let me know if you see my latest one I published today, thanks Becky 🙂

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  8. The first one is gorgeous, and you have described using back-light so well. I had to enlarge the other photo to see the egret, at first glance it looks like you cut his head off, but I see he is just hunkering down. 😁

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    1. No inside link 😁 she’s posted all 52assignments…..check out the second link in my post, or visit her home page and click on 2020PhotoChallenge in the menu bar.

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    1. Thanks Graham. That first one did work so well ☺️ as you say though who can resist a member of the heron family! It’s a Little Egret, and in silhouette it is so obvious they are herons with that hunched outline.

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      1. Plus herons just hunker down in one spot, allowing photographers to mess about with the settings and frame different shots in the search for the perfect image!

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    1. Well spotted I have indeed. Still not 100% sure I went with right one, but the header effect I love so will probably stick with this for now 😄

      We’re missing this doorstep view so much, although not sure I’d cope with the 30degrees plus!

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