Taking silhouette photos w/my 3100

Any suggestions for taking silhouette photos w/my 3100? I plan on doing it during the sunset with a lake in the back ground. More than likely It'll be trial and error.
Thanks for the help

Just taking the shot under that back lit condition might give you silhouettes, it depends what your meter thinks of the scene. See what it does. Then you could try spot metering on the background sky. Or you could use exposure compensation and add a negative value. Or you could shoot in manual, start with with what your meter thinks is good exposure and then begin raising your shutter speed until you get the effect you want.

So long as you've got a very bright background, like the sun reflecting on the water, use a matrix meter while still keeping your desired subject as the point of focus. A silhouette will make itself with a bright background like that!

Here's a few samples I posted in my 365 thread, silhouettes taken on the river at sunset. Structures, people, horizon, all in silhouette and taken as a rookie with a D3100 with the kit 18-55 lens.

http://nikonites.com/project-365-daily-photos/12794-pretzels-learning-curve-11.html#post167824

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The nice thing about shooting a digital camera is that it does not cost anything to shoot an extra shot of two and that you you can see the results right then. Go play and have fun.

Thanks for the tips. As stated above, with digital you can take as many pictures as you want and not have to worry about film.

I'll post after I take them
Thanks

Not so much a D3100 specific issue, more about technique
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Shot in aperture mode f/5.6 or so, iso 200, I do allot of silhouettes with sunsets here in Arizona and they come out good.