How to capture a clean silhouette with your camera in manual mode – and how shooting in RAW gives you the room to make it pop in the edit. My video walkthrough is below, with the key settings written out underneath.
The short version
Expose for the sky, not the subject. Meter off the bright background and let the subject fall to black. If your subject has detail, it is not a silhouette yet.
Manual mode, low ISO. Lock your settings so the camera does not “help” by brightening the subject between frames.
Shoot RAW. The gap between a bright sky and a dark subject is exactly where RAW files earn their keep – you can deepen the blacks and grade the sky without banding.
Quick tip: a clean outline beats a pretty background. Give your subject space and a simple, readable shape against the brightest part of the frame.
