Three Silhouettes

A few years ago, I discovered Savage Translum backdrops. I chose the lightweight, 60-inch-by-18-foot version. Translum is a translucent plastic backdrop that looks like frosted glass.

To create silhouettes, we placed the model behind the Translum and the light source behind her. We first tried a small 7-inch reflector dish, but its shadows were too soft. We wanted crisp, detailed shadows, so we needed an even smaller, harder light source.

We switched to a projector. Its lens is only about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, making it an extremely hard light source. This was the magic we were looking for! The resulting silhouettes were crisp and detailed, leading to the images below.