This is the second post in my 2025 Project52 series. Hopefully there will be fifty more after this one. In case you haven’t read my previous posts, you can go back and read my reasons for wanting to attempt another Project52 this year. You can also see the image and read the back story for week 1. The theme for Project52 week 2 was silhouettes, here’s the story behind the image above.
If you’ve read the previous posts in this series, you’ll know I’m attempting to complete this project using an iPhone. That plan didn’t last long, the image for week two wasn’t taken on my iPhone. The image is actually one from my archive, taken in 2012. Read on to find out why I had to delve into my photo archive to complete the challenge.
Silhouettes
While not easy, good silhouette shots can be taken with any iPhone. There are plenty of articles and YouTube videos out there that will teach you how. If you look at any of these example images or tutorials, you will notice they all have one thing in common. They’re all taken at sunrise or sunset with a lot of light.
The issue I have with this week’s theme, is it’s very dependent on conditions. I had a couple of locations in mind where I had good subjects to use for the image. As I’m not a full-time photographer, my shooting time must fit around my day job. Not a problem for sunrise at this time of year, sunset is a little more difficult as it’s within my working day.
The weather didn’t want to play ball. Most of the mornings I could get out to shoot were cloudy and overcast. There wasn’t a hint of the sun through the flat grey cloud. Evenings didn’t work for sunset, and I already had plans for the weekend.
Not to worry, I had a plan B. The sun isn’t the only thing that can be used to make silhouettes. The moon can be pretty good too. I knew the image above was in my archive already. I decided I would try and recreate something similar, but with a more interesting subject.
Night Shooting with the iPhone
Before I headed out to take the actual shot I wanted to capture, I headed into the garden one evening to take some test shots. The idea was I could play around with the different camera apps and settings on the iPhone. I wanted to make sure I could take the type of image I wanted to capture. I also wanted to get familiar with the settings needed to get the image.
This is where things get difficult. After trying a few different apps and settings, I just couldn’t get an image I was happy with. The images were either too grainy or lacked sharpness. I tried manually setting the ISO and aperture in the Lightroom camera app. None of the changes yielded an image I was even remotely satisfied with.
As the week progressed, the weather didn’t change with most days being cold, damp, and grey. I decided to give up on the idea of recreating my image and I would use the original image from 2012. I did reprocess it in Lightroom and do some noise reduction and sharpening.
Project52 Week 2 Conclusions
While you can shoot silhouettes with an iPhone, its not that good at night. While the iPhone’s capabilities for night shots that are well exposed using night mode are great, you don’t get the creative freedom of a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
I will experiment more with this type of shot in the future when time constraints are not a factor. For now, I’ll be happy with the fact I have an image for Project52 week 2 and move on to week 3.
Thanks for stopping by and reading this. As always, if you have any questions, drop them in the comments below. If you want to get in touch, you can use the contact page link on the navigation menu.
Take it easy.
