How Do I Do That?  "That" being how do I capture a silhouette.

Photographs with silhouettes create drama and mystery.  They can be a powerful means of storytelling, but may require the viewer to do a little more work than they would with a non-silhouetted subject.  

This is how I do that:

• It's all about the light placement.  You want your light source behind your subject with little to no light in front.  Ideally, you want to place your subject directly in front of the sun.  This photo was taken facing west at sunset.  The sun was barely above the horizon.
• You want to photograph a subject with crisp, clean lines and/or unique shapes.  A bare tree would be a better subject than a tree full of leaves, for example.  In this photo, I had my husband stand with his legs slightly apart to allow more light around his body.  He also wore his signature hat to add more contour.  I then made sure that there was some distance between him and the dog so that they were both obvious in the image.
• To set exposure on your camera, you want to expose for the brightest point in your image.  This will underexpose everything else.  That's what creates the silhouette.
• You can further darken the image, if necessary, in post processing by upping the blacks or the contrast.  Be careful to not overdo and lose other details in your image.
• Silhouettes can be in color or black and white.  That is an artistic choice for you to make.
• Shooting when the sun is low on the horizon is the optimal time to create silhouettes if you are using natural light.

Have fun!