Silhouette is an old art-form that is used to move emphasis to shapes and outlines. Origin of Silhouettes is a matter of debate, with some theorists going all the way back to vanished civilizations. My first serious encounter with silhouettes was when I saw some photographs by Henri Cartier Bresson where the main subjects were just black shapes. Before writing this article, I discussed the first encounter of silhouettes by some other photographers. I got quite a collection of answers with the top three interesting being – the silhouette of the queen on postal stamps of England, the silhouette of Beethoven in an old painting, the all too cliché photograph of the arch (in silhouette) framing the famous Taj Mahal

(Silhouette of Pines on a hill-top)

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When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change! In technical terms of photography, the way various elements in a composition appear to be separated from each other, is called perspective. This is a matter of confusion for many especially with the proliferation of zoom lenses in the market. Now zooms come as standard kit lenses with most DSLRs and so what some of the discussions on perspective and lenses earlier conveyed, is now confusing for many.

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