What is the effect called when a subject is not lit but placed against a brightly lit background?

• A. Backlight
• B. Shadow
• C. Silhouette
• D. Halo

Answer: (C)

Silhouette happens when the light is behind the subject and the exposure is set for the bright background, leaving the subject itself unlit and appearing as a dark shape. Because the camera is capturing the glow of the background, the subject’s front receives little or no light, so its details vanish and only the outer contour remains, which creates that crisp, recognizable outline against the bright sky or backdrop. This is distinct from backlighting in general, which describes the direction of the light; silhouette is specifically the result of underexposure of the subject relative to a bright background. A halo would be a glow around the edges, often from lens flare, and a shadow is simply a dark area cast by blocking light on a surface, not the subject against a bright background.