Turn It into a Silhouette
How to turn your subject into a silhouette. Four stills, four prompts, Midjourney.
The prompts
Copy them, run them, change whatever you want. No signup.
cinematic film still, a vertiginous view from the pitch of a colossal modern stadium at night packed with a hundred thousand people, a bowl of faces and phone lights rising steeply into the black sky, one small figure alone on the turf in the foreground, hot white floodlight against the deep cool blue of the night bowl, immense oppressive scale, extreme low angle, full vertical composition, photorealistic, shot on 35mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Linus Sandgren --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration, recognizable team, logos
cinematic film still, a colossal ancient stone door standing open in a green hillside, warm golden light flooding out of the opening across the wet grass, two tiny figures silhouetted at the threshold, the doorway many times their height, warm interior gold against the cool blue-green of the overcast hillside, immense scale and invitation, photorealistic, shot on 70mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Andrew Lesnie --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration, recognizable franchise, hobbit
cinematic film still, an underwater shot looking up at the vast cracked underside of a polar ice sheet, shafts of cold light coming down through the fractures, a single tiny diver silhouetted against one bright fissure far above, warm dive-light glow in the foreground against the deep cold blue of the water, immense scale and silence, photorealistic, shot on IMAX 70mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Hoyte van Hoytema --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration
cinematic film still, a colossal column of white-blue energy erupting from a city plaza straight up into a spiralling cloud vortex overhead, tiny silhouetted figures scattering across the plaza far below, warm streetlight and burning debris against the cold blue-white of the beam and the vortex, immense scale, low angle, full vertical composition, photorealistic, shot on 35mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Seamus McGarvey --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration, marvel, recognizable franchise, superhero costume
Why it works
When the brightest light in a shot is behind your subject, the camera sees the subject as a dark shape. People can read a dark shape against a bright background even when the person is tiny.
Light them from behind. In the stadium shot the floodlight shines from behind one small figure alone on the turf. The person turns into a dark shape against the glow.
Place them in a bright doorway. In the stone door, two tiny figures silhouetted at the threshold are very small in the frame. You can still see them because the gold light from the door is behind them.
Point the camera up at the light. The diver shot looks up from below, so a single tiny diver silhouetted against one bright fissure far above shows as a dark shape against the bright crack in the ice.
Use the word silhouette in your prompt. Three of these four prompts ask for it by name, like tiny silhouetted figures scattering across the plaza far below. Say what the person is in front of, too: a light, a doorway, a bright crack.
Before you run it
Use the same settings. All four were made with --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2.
Keep the bright part behind the person. If the light falls on the front of your subject, you get a lit person, not a silhouette. Light from behind is the part that makes the shape.