A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior. The word is an eponym named after Etienne de Silhouette, a finance minister of Louis XV who in 1759 imposed such stringent economic strictures upon the French people that his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply. A silhouette is a form of artwork. It is most commonly a human portrait in profile, in black. No details of the subject are visible.. Silhouettes are most often made by a skilled silhouette artist by looking at a subject's profile, whether in person or from a photograph, and simply cutting out their likeness freehand. Two hundred years ago, long before the camera was invented, someone wishing to have an inexpensive portrait created of their loved ones would have visited a silhouette artist. Within minutes and using only a pair of scissors and a skillful eye, he would have produced a little image with a remarkable resemblance to his subject. In America, Silhouettes were highly popular from about 1790 to 1840. The invention of the camera signaled the end of the Silhouette as a widespread form of portraiture. However, their popularity is being reborn in a new generation of people who appreciate the Silhouette as a nostalgic and unique way of capturing a loved one's image.

The important thing in a silhouette photograph is the form ,the shape, the outline and last but not the least the details in the background. A cloudy sky at dawn or dusk is an ideal setting to start experimenting with silhouettes. If shooting on auto mode you need to use exposure compensation facility of your camera.,