We’re so excited to show off our collection of The 30 Best Wedding Silhouettes! Chosen from over 1,500 photos, this collection includes the most interesting, innovative, and incredible silhouettes submitted by photographers all over the world, and we're giving you a taste of it here. Check out 5 of our favorite shots and scroll down to read the history of silhouettes with some ideas for making them possible at your wedding. Then jump over to our Awards Gallery and be amazed by the work of the world’s top photographers.

Roughly 200 years before the camera, silhouettes were the way most people could afford to have a portrait. One would go for a sitting and the artist would create a cutting on black paper and affix to a light background to be framed. From the 1790s to the 1840s the art form flourished and encompassed all kinds of subjects from people to animals to elaborate scenes. 

When the first photographed silhouettes were taken in the 1840s, the art form became much more complex, and we think, interesting. 
 

Over the years, silhouettes have gained and lost popularity, unusually due to their over use. At one point in the 1980s they were so common that they became clichéd. Nowadays they're on the rise again, and top photographers are blowing our minds with how to make them like never before. 

If you would like to have your photographer take some silhouettes at your wedding, try scheduling your portraits right after sunset. And to make your shape look great, kiss naturally, don’t touch noses or tummies, and keep your legs separated so each one is part of the overall shape. Silhouettes of groups can require coordination so if you want one like the epic group shots in our collection it may take some time. (However, if you hire an artist whose style does not include posing it may take no time at all.)

No doubt, your wedding photographer will help you every step of the way,and when your big day is done you’ll have one-of-a-kind, artistic portraits to hang on your walls and show off to your friends and family.

To see all the experienced and skillful photographers on our recommendation list go to our directory, and to see all 30 silhouettes in our collection, visit our Awards Gallery.