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Posts Tagged ‘Shadows’

Weekly Photo Challenge – Shadows

03 Apr

The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Shadows appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

“Simply speaking, a shadow is an absence of light. If light cannot get through an object, the surface on the other side of that object (for example, the ground or a wall) will have less light reaching it” – Science Learning Hub

#dPSShadows

After the ‘lighting’ theme last week, this week we’re about the lack of light, or ‘shadow’ – and really, unless you live in a dark cave, void of light, you have no excuses to not go out and capture a shadow in some form – the idea behind these challenges being to make you think about what you’re photographing and work at getting better every time.

I remember the first time I took a specific shadow photograph, that’s it above, and it really was that orange in the late afternoon light of the amazing Sahara Desert in Morocco… It was a bit typical “People on camels” but it was an amazing experience and I loved the shadow photo (This was a Canon Powershot Pro 1… should tell you how long ago that was!) I’ve been noticing shadow to this day. SO, go forth and capture shadows! Share them in the comments below, on instagram or Facebook and make sure you tag us! (Details below)

Missed a Challenge? Don’t sweat it, find all of our previous challenges here!

Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSShadows so we can see them!

How do I upload my photo to the comments?

Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.

Weekly Photography Challenge – Looking Up

The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Shadows appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

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Google and UC Berkeley researchers create AI that can remove shadows from images

25 Aug

Researchers with the University of California Berkeley and Google Research have published a new paper detailing an AI that can remove unwanted shadows from images. The algorithm focuses on two different types of shadows — ones from external objects and ones naturally resulting from facial features — and works to either remove or soften them in order to maintain a natural appearance.

Whereas professional images are often taken in a studio with proper lighting, the average snapshot of a person is taken ‘in the wild’ where lighting conditions may be harsh, causing dark shadows that obscure parts of the subject’s face while other parts are covered with excessive highlights.

The newly developed AI is designed to address this problem by targeting those unwanted shadows and highlights, removing and softening them until a clearer subject remains. The researchers say their tool works in a ‘realistic and controllable way,’ and it could prove useful for more than just images captured in casual settings.

Professionals could, for example, use a tool like this to salvage images taken in outdoor environments where it was impossible to control the lighting, such as wedding images taken outdoors under a bright noon sun. In their paper, the researchers explain:

In this work, we attempt to provide some of the control over lighting that professional photographers have in studio environments to casual photographers in unconstrained environments … Given just a single image of a human subject taken in an unknown and unconstrained environment, our complete system is able to remove unwanted foreign shadows, soften harsh facial shadows, and balance the image’s lighting ratio to produce a flattering and realistic portrait image.

This project is designed to target three specific elements in these photographs: foreign shadows from external objects, facial shadows caused by one’s natural facial features and lighting ratios between the lightest and darkest parts of the subject’s face. Two different machine learning models are used to target these elements, one to remove foreign shadows and the other to soften facial shadows alongside lighting ratio adjustments.

The team evaluated their two machine learning models using both ‘in the wild’ and synthetic image datasets. The results are compared to existing state-of-the-art technologies that perform the same functions. ‘Our complete model clearly outperforms the others,’ the researchers note in the study, highlighting their system’s ability in a selection of processed sample images.

In addition to using the technology to adjust images, the study explains that this method can be tapped as a way to ‘preprocess’ images for other image-modifying algorithms, such as portrait relighting tools. The researchers explain:

Though often effective, these portrait relighting techniques sometimes produce suboptimal renderings when presented with input images that contain foreign shadows or harsh facial shadows. Our technique can improve a portrait relighting solution: our model can be used to remove these unwanted shadowing effects, producing a rendering that can then be used as input to a portrait relighting solution, resulting in an improved final rendering.

The system isn’t without limitations, however, particularly if the foreign shadows are presented with ‘many finely-detailed structures,’ some residue of which may remain even after the images are processed. As well, and due to the way the system works, some bilaterally symmetric shadows may not be removed from subjects,

In addition, softening the facial shadows using this technique may, at times, result in a soft, diffused appearance due to excessive smoothing of some fine details that should remain, such as in the subject’s hair, as well as causing a ‘flat’ appearance by softening some facial shadows.

As well, the researchers note that their complete system looks for two types of shadows — facial and foreign — and that it may confuse the two at times. If facial shadows on the subject are ‘sufficiently harsh,’ the system may detect them as foreign shadows and remove (rather than soften) them.

Talking about this issue, the researchers explain:

This suggests that our model may benefit from a unified approach for both kinds of shadows, though this approach is somewhat at odds with the constraints provided by image formation and our datasets: a unified learning approach would require a unified source of training data, and it is not clear how existing light stage scans or in-the-wild photographs could be used to construct a large, diverse, and photorealistic dataset in which both foreign and facial shadows are present and available as ground-truth.

Regardless, the study highlights yet another potential use for artificial intelligence technologies in the photography industry, paving the way for more capable and realistic editing that takes less time to perform than manual editing. A number of studies over the past few years have highlighted potential uses for AI, including transforming still images into moving animations and, in the most extreme cases, generating entire photo-realistic images.

As for this latest project, the researchers have made their code, evaluation data, test data, supplemental materials and paper available to download through the UC Berkeley website.

Via: Reddit

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Shadows in Photography – How Seeing the Shadows Helps You Understand the Light

14 Dec

The post Shadows in Photography – How Seeing the Shadows Helps You Understand the Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

There are many great quotes about the relationship and importance of light to photography. You’ve read how the very word photography is rooted in the Greek terms meaning “writing with light.” You likely have heard of groups of photographers like Canon’s “Explorers of Light.” Yet while we focus attention on the component of light, we sometimes fail to recognize the importance of areas without light, the shadows in a photograph. As there can be no yin without yang, photography also must “embrace the Tao”, the duality of both light and shadows in photography.

Let’s explore the relationship in this article on shadows in photography.

The left side is Yin, the right is Yang. As with photography, the shadow has a spot of light within it, the light a spot of shadow. Good photographers understand the “Tao,” the dual nature of light and shadow and use both to enhance their work.

Yin and Yang in the rocks as light falls across the land.

More Yin and Yang as light and shadow play across the Bruneau Dunes in Idaho.

You find what you seek

Beginning photography students are taught to see and seek the light. Sometimes they fail to realize that to better see the effects of light, it can sometimes be easier to look at the shadows.

We use terms like hard and soft to describe the quality of light when what we are really describing is the line between light and shadow. A sharp delineation between light and shadow, that’s what we call hard light. A very gradual transition between the two and that’s soft light. We need to look at both light and shadow to fully understand.

As with many things, you will begin to see…really see…what is there once you start to look for it. Taking your camera out with the express intention of capturing shadows in photography is a great way to seek and see the light.

Image: Sometimes the photo comes to you. When the morning light came through the Venetian blinds, an...

Sometimes the photo comes to you. When the morning light came through the Venetian blinds, and I saw this, I went for my camera.

Shadow seasons and times

It’s late November as I write this, and at my latitude – about 43-degrees north – we’re getting into winter. The days are growing shorter, and the shadows are growing longer. With the winter solstice approaching on December 21, the sun will be the lowest in the sky for us in the northern hemisphere. For my friends down under in the southern hemisphere, that same day will be the longest and the middle of summer.

Of course, the time of day plays a big part in that too, regardless of the time of year. One reason photographers favor early morning and late afternoon/evening is not just for the golden hour, but for the low light angle and more dramatic shadows.

Yes, you will find shadows at any time of the day, but their size and characteristics will vary with time of day and time of year.

When the days grow short, the shadows grow long.

Then there’s artificial light. You can’t control the sun, but you can control artificial light sources. You can control their intensity, color, and direction, and with the use of modifiers, the quality of shadows.

With regard to shadows, remember that the hardness/softness of shadows is a factor of the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject.

A softbox makes for soft shadows because it increases the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject. You will also get softer shadows when you move the light closer to the subject (which also increases its relative size).

You can learn more about the qualities of light in my previous article, “How to Understand Light and Color to Improve your Photography.”

All photos contain both light and shadow. Seeing it, and learning to best use it, is the key.

Can you study this photo and figure out, by looking at the shadows, how the light was used?

The shadow shows

Looking at a photo, studying the shadows can tell you about:

Direction

Look at a photo and study where the shadows are falling. The light source will be exactly opposite from the directions the shadows fall or from the darkest side of the subject.

The subtle gradation of light and shadow gives shape and form to these apples.

Shape and form

The way light and shadows fall, give us clues as to the shape of a subject. Photography is a 2D medium we use to capture a 3D world, and light and shadow help add depth, dimension, and form to subjects.

Photograph an egg with the light source directly coming from the same direction the camera is pointing, and you will see a two-dimensional oval with little clue as to the depth of the egg.

Now move the light to a 45-degree angle, and the shadow will begin to give evidence to the true shape of the egg.

Move the light 90-degrees to the camera direction, and your perception changes again.

Whatever the subject, the direction of the light, and the areas in shadow are our clues to interpreting our subject.

Low cross-lighting brings out the texture of these subjects with harsh light and shadow gradation.

Texture

Often we want to control how textured a subject looks in our photo. For some subjects, we may wish to emphasize the texture as much as possible. Hard light raking the subject from the side, behind, above, or below the subject will increase apparent texture by creating both lit and shadow areas.

Sometimes we want minimal texture, perhaps when making portraits. Large light sources like softboxes or nature’s lightbox, the sky on an overcast day, will soften shadows and minimize texture.

Want drama? Find a way to use the light and shadow creatively in your photo.

Mood and drama

What is in light and shadow, what is bright and dark, how and where the shadows fall – all of these work together to communicate the mood of an image.

This is another example of learning to see how both light and shadow work together.

Note how non-traditional side lighting adds drama to these portraits.

We can also use light and shadow as we make portraits.

Standard three-point studio lighting can make for a pleasing portrait. Still, when we want to emphasize shape, form, texture, or create an edgier, moodier portrait, we will want to look at more dramatic light and, in particular, how light and shadow interplay.

Image: Photographers travel the world to photograph the Palouse country in eastern Washington State....

Photographers travel the world to photograph the Palouse country in eastern Washington State. The play of light and shadow on the rolling hills is the main attraction.

Same shot, one color, one monochrome. Note how the simpler mono image is more about the lines, shapes, and tones.

Color vs monochrome

If you have worked much with monochrome photography, you may know that one reason for choosing it over color photography is that without the added distraction of color in the image, a monochrome image can be more about the lines, texture, and tones in the photograph.

When doing shadow photography, you may also be looking for an emphasis on those same things. So, if you are unaccustomed to making monochrome images, you may wish to give it a try when doing shadow photography as the two techniques often complement one another.

The shadows are as much the subject as the other objects in these photos.

The shadow as the subject

All photographs will have areas of light and shadow.

A good photographer will pay attention to how both work together to enhance their image. Sometimes, however, instead of simply having shadows be a component in your photo, you may want to try making shadows THE subject – the main focus of your image.

I said that you find what you seek, and going out with the specific mission of capturing shadows in photography is a great way to learn to see shadows better and understand light.

Let’s look at some examples of shadows in photography.

Image: In the image on the left, the shadows enhance the subjects. In the photo on the right, the sh...

In the image on the left, the shadows enhance the subjects. In the photo on the right, the shadows ARE the subject.

Go out with the intent of taking shadows in photography and you’ll find some interesting compositions.

Early morning or late afternoon when the light is low is a great time to go “shadow hunting.”

“A Little Fork Music.” Shadows can surprise you. See the hand strumming a guitar?

Seek and see shadows in photography

So now it’s all yours… get out there with your camera and go on a shadow hunt. You’ve always heard that photographers should seek the light. “Mr. Kodak,” George Eastman obviously knew a thing or two about photography and he said –

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. – George Eastman

I heartily endorse his advice. However, I would also suggest that while you learn about the “Yang,” the light, you do not overlook the “Yin,” the shadows. They are immutably entwined, two sides of the same coin, both to be, to use Eastman’s words, embraced, admired, loved, and known.

To practice capturing shadows in photography will help you become a better photographer. When you see the shadows, you will also see the light.

Do you have any other tips for capturing shadows in photography or shadow photography images you’d like to share with us? If so, share them with us in the comments!

The post Shadows in Photography – How Seeing the Shadows Helps You Understand the Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

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MIT project uses camera and AI to ‘record’ hidden objects using the shadows they cast

10 Dec

Researchers with MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have published a study detailing the use of cameras and artificial intelligence to recreate hidden actions based only on the shadows they cast. The method produces fairly low-quality results at this time but may be refined for future computational photography purposes that include helping self-driving cars ‘see’ hidden objects in their environment.

Shadows can reveal the presence of things a person may not be able to directly see; in the most obvious example, someone could, for example, perceive that a person is standing around a nearby corner because of the shadow they cast on the sidewalk. Though humans can perceive the movement of objects using their shadows, we cannot determine their colors and may not be able to determine their shape.

The newly detailed MIT AI can, however, recreate videos that include hints about an object’s color and shape based on the shadows it produces. As demonstrated in the video above, the AI was surprisingly capable of recreating the movement and general shape of hands and forearms in motion out of view of the camera. As well, the algorithm generated a video of hands moving large blocks and a small ball, recreating part of each object’s color.

This is the latest example of researchers combining cameras and artificial intelligence to produce seemingly magical results. This past summer, for example, experts with Facebook Research and the University of Washington unveiled an algorithm that can generate ‘living’ animations from individual still images.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The Importance of Shadows in Portrait Photography

25 Mar

The post The Importance of Shadows in Portrait Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

When you’re starting out with learning how to light your photography, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of blasting your subjects with light from all angles. The results are often bright images without a hint of a shadow anywhere. Sometimes that’s exactly what the job calls for: bright, cleanly lit images with very little contrast. However, obliterating the shadows in your images can have a negative impact.

The difference between heavily lit images and those with the shadows maintained can be astounding.

Deliberate and effective use of shadows in your images can help to create a natural contrast and depth, convey drama and emotion, and provide you with powerful compositional elements in your photography.

This article will discuss these reasons why it’s not only important to retain the shadows in your imagery, but to keep them in primary consideration while you are still planning your images. There is also an outline of a simple exercise you can do to help you to start better seeing shadows, and how they affect your images, that you can use to improve your understanding of light.

Not just low-key

Obviously, low-key images rely heavily on shadows, but shadows are important in all styles of photography.

It is important to clarify one thing here. This concept doesn’t just apply to low-key images where the vast majority of the space in the frame is dominated by shadow tones. In fact, shadows are just as important to brightly lit images as they help to define the shape and features of your subject.

Why shadows are important

Retaining the shadows in your images can do a lot of things for you, especially in terms of image design. Listed below are a few of these for you to consider.

Depth and contrast

Retaining shadows in your images can help give you a natural contrast and add depth to your images.

Contrast, in terms of this article, is the tonal difference between dark and light. This contrast is how we see things in three dimensions and it’s exactly how you can create the appearance of three dimensions in your two-dimensional imagery. The thing is, it’s hard to do this without shadows. (It’s also difficult to do it without specular highlights, but that’s a different discussion for a different day.)

For example, to illustrate the three-dimensional nature of a nose, you need a highlight that graduates into mid-tones. The highlight indicates the closest point of the nose to the light. Assuming the light is above your subject, shadows will fall underneath the nose. This provides a visual indicator that the nose is protruding from the face. Without the shadows, there will be little, if any, differentiation between the nose and the rest of the subject’s face. This results in a flat, unsettling image. Even if your viewers cannot figure out what they’re looking at, they will still be aware that something seems wrong.

Ensuring that you have shadows in your images will help to have pleasing, natural-looking images in any type of lighting.

Add drama and evoke mood

Shadows are a fantastic tool when you are trying to create images that evoke mood and emotion.

Generous use of shadow tones in your images is one of the quickest and most effective ways to evoke a sense of mood and helps you to create images with bags of drama.

You can do this in a number of ways including:

Backlighting and short lighting

Short lighting is a great tool to help you place shadows where they have the most impact.

Lighting your subject from behind will render most of the foreground of your frame as shadow tones, with only certain aspects of your subjects rendered with highlights.

To control the strength of your shadows, you can change the size and shape of your light source, change the distance between the light source and your subject, or fill the shadows with a secondary light source.

Lighting choice

Making a deliberate lighting choice (like the 2’x2′ softbox used here) to emphasize your shadows is one of the easiest ways to take control of the shadows in your imagery.

If you use a small(ish) light source in close to your subject, you can make use of the faster rate of light fall off to help introduce shadows into your images.

For an even better grasp of this, pick a few movies or television shows (especially dramas) and study the lighting choices during dramatic scenes with a lot of dialogue. In a lot of cases, you will find that there was a conscious choice to light the actors in a way that highlights specific features while throwing most of the rest of the actor in shadow.

Compositional elements

Shadows are a great way to help compose your images and can help you to draw attention to your focal point.

Shadows can be used to wonderful effect in crafting compositional devices within your images. Using darker tones to frame your subject, or to lead your viewer’s eye to what you want them to see can help to make more dynamic and interesting images.

Fill

Shadows don’t have to be dark. Even filled in with additional lights, you can still use shadows for contrast and depth.

When you’re talking about shadows, that doesn’t mean you have to stick to ultra dark tones with little or no visible detail. By using fill lights, you can still light every single part of your image while retaining shadow tone. If you expose your fill light two or three stops below your key light, you will still have the appearance of contrast in your images, but you will retain all the finer details that would be missing if you hadn’t used fill.

An exercise in shadows

To get the grips with this concept, try this simple exercise with a lot of different subjects.

First, choose a subject. Any subject will do, but you might want to start with something static.

Take a good, critical look at what you’ve picked to photograph and start thinking about the lighting. However, instead of thinking about the highlights, try to focus only on where you want to place your shadows.

With that decided, pick a light source (a desk lamp will do) and light your subject so that you have the desired effect.

If you want to take this further, once you have your shadows in place, you can further modify and manipulate your light so that the highlights behave in a way that compliments the shadows.

That’s it

While this is a simple concept, it can seem counterintuitive. When you’re approaching lighting, of course it makes sense to think about the highlights first; however, incorporating some extra thought about your shadows can help take your lighting skills to a new level. Try the exercise above with a few different subjects, and evaluate if and how you can make shadows work for you in your photography.

The post The Importance of Shadows in Portrait Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Shadows

08 Dec

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Shadows appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

Your weekly photography challenge – SHADOWS!

Still River in black and white by caz-nowaczyk

This week, I challenge you to embrace shadows in your photography. Shadows can be used to tell stories, create drama and mood, as well as mystery.

Your photos can be color, or black and white, and be landscape, portraiture, street photography or any other genre. Either way, I can’t wait to see them!

Check out today’s video on embracing shadows as well as some of the articles below that may give you inspiration for shooting and editing Shadow pictures.

Here are some cool insta pics for inspiration too:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Manuel Pena (@manolobrown) on Dec 4, 2018 at 3:52am PST

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Julia Coddington (@juliacoddington) on Sep 20, 2018 at 2:44pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dilerious Dilettante (@loulou_mcphee) on Dec 6, 2018 at 11:52am PST

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jeremy Perez-Cruz (@sleepingplanes) on Oct 29, 2018 at 4:46am PDT

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gregory Urquiaga (@eight_spicey_ducks) on Dec 4, 2017 at 12:29pm PST

Add Impact to Your Photos by Including Shadows

5 Tips for Mastering Shadows in Your Photography

How to Use Shadow and Contrast to Create Dramatic Images

24 Dark and Mysterious Shadow Images

25 Shadow Images to Inspire You

Still Waters in black and white by Caz Nowaczyk

Weekly Photography Challenge – Shadows

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll be embedded for us all to see. Or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge!

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSSHADOWS to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Shadows appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

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Embracing Shadows in Photography – A Lesson for Light and Life

07 Dec

The post Embracing Shadows in Photography – A Lesson for Light and Life appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

In this fantastic video by Sean Tucker, he takes a look at the ways shadows can be used in photography to create mystery and depth.

Shadows in film

Throughout this process, he examines the work of cinematographer, Roger Deakins, and looks at stills from his films Skyfall, Bladerunner, Jarhead and Unbroken. Using these amazing film stills, he analyses how the Deakins uses color, backlight, selective lighting and loads of deep shadows to create mystery and mood in his images.

According to Sean, many photographers say that using film as a point-of-reference for this type of photography is difficult because the same type of images cannot be captured in stills. As photographers, we simply don’t have access to million-dollar lighting set-ups and set design.

Photographers who tell stories through shadows

So, as part of this perspective, Sean also looks at photographers, Constantine Manos, Ray Metzker, Saul Leiter, and Trent Parke who manage to capture shadows in creative ways. These photographers manage to do this through the use of natural light and in the genres of landscape, portraiture and street photography. Through these images, they sculpt light, create character and tell stories with an interesting narrative. These images draw the viewer in and tell richer stories.

In the video, Sean also discusses the limitations of cameras to see the full dynamic range of the eye. He shows us exactly how this theory works with our camera through a diagrammatic presentation. A helpful tool for those wanting to understand dynamic range.

You may also find the following articles helpful:

Add Impact to Your Photos by Including Shadows

5 Tips for Mastering Shadows in Your Photography

How to Use Shadow and Contrast to Create Dramatic Images

24 Dark and Mysterious Shadow Images

25 Shadow Images to Inspire You

The post Embracing Shadows in Photography – A Lesson for Light and Life appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

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5 Tips for Mastering Shadows in Your Photography

14 Nov

Walking into a dimly lit room can be a photographer’s worse nightmare. Dark walls, low lighting, and weird shadows are enough to give even the calmest photographer a case of anxiety. Does this sound familiar? It did to me when I was first starting out and claimed to be a natural light photographer.

Because let’s face it, I did not know how to use my flash and more importantly did not know how to read light. Yes, I said that right. As a photographer, you not only see light but also need to learn the art of reading light – the type of light, the quality of light and also how the light will affect your final image.

The more I started to photograph people and places, the more I realized that but finding light among the shadows wasn’t really that scary or daunting.

How to Embrace Shadows in Your Photography

Master the shadows

Imagine for a moment the confidence you would feel if you can walk into any indoor lighting situation and think to yourself, “Yes, I got this”. And I don’t mean using your off-camera flash or strobes to light up the whole scene like the fourth of July fireworks display. I mean using only available light to create some magical photos.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still love images taken in natural light as they feel really light, airy, and inviting to me. But shooting in a low-key style, embracing shadows to create some dramatic portraits is just as fun and exciting.

For the past few years, I have felt a little limited in my photography in terms of only photographing in bright, open, natural light conditions. Living in Chicago, our summers are quite short and fall is usually a mix of rain, thunderstorms and more rain. I learned very quickly that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and figure out how to photograph indoors and do it confidently and creatively.

A less I quickly learned is that shadows play such an important role in shaping light, setting the mood, rendering depth, and creating drama. In the absence of floor-to-ceiling multi-windowed, light-filled rooms to photograph in, embracing shadows may be the perfect solution for unleashing your creativity.

#1 Gear choices

Dark and Moody Lifestyle Portraits - How to Embrace Shadows in Your Photography

If you have a choice between prime and zoom lenses, choose the former. Primes are generally considered fast lenses with an aperture of f/1.8 or larger and allow what light there is to reach the camera’s sensor. My Canon 50mm f/1.2 is on my camera 80% of the time I am photographing indoors.

Make sure to also meter appropriately. I use spot metering most of the time and have my center spot set to the brightest area on my subject’s face/skin. This, in itself, will help to get a dramatically lit image. It will expose the highlights properly and allow the rest of the scene to have shadows for a range of tones.

Ensure you expose properly as well. If the capture is underexposed, attempting to correct it in post-processing only adds noise. In general, I tend to overexposure my photos by at least 1/3 stop no matter where I am photographing. I have found that this allows me to minimize noise and retain as much detail as possible in the shadows.

My White Balance is set to Auto. You can choose to set White Balance via the custom Kelvin function so that it can cut down processing time later. I find that being in Auto works really well in most cases and I am okay with minor adjustments in post-processing if required. Learn to embrace a bit of noise by increasing the ISO especially if the room is really dark.

Dark and Moody Lifestye Portraits in Shadows - How to Embrace Shadows in Your Photography

#2 Single light source

A single light source such as a small window or open door can work wonders for your image. When you are working with dark spaces and limited light, you’ll be surprised how little light you actually need.

If you have north-facing windows, they tend to bring in a softer and more directional light as opposed to east or west facing. Those tend to bring strong light depending on where the sun is in the sky at the time you are photographing.

Dark and Moody Wedding Portraits in Shadows - 5 Tips for Mastering Shadows in Your Photography

Backlight magic.

The bride is facing the window and her profile is evenly lit. But the dark drapes behind her render the background almost black – I quite love the drama of light and dark happening in this photo – achieved by just placing the subject in a specific spot.

#3 Direction and quality of light

Both the direction and the quality of light play significant roles in the mood of an image. So understanding the variety, nature, and use of each will help you make informed decisions about how to achieve your end goal.

Hard, focused light tends to amp up the overall drama of the image, emphasizing texture and detail, and producing contrasty shadows with sharp, defined edges. Soft, diffused light gives shadows soft, feathered edges that recede gently (dither away), making it flattering and versatile for human subjects for the way it minimizes texture and detail (i.e., flaws).

The angle and direction of the light you choose depend on your shooting style and your intent for the image or session. Typically, I do not position the subject facing the light source because it gives a flat, one-dimensional look to the subject’s features. I prefer lighting my subjects from the side for the depth and dimension the shadows give the subject’s features and the rest of the frame.

Backlighting the subject has its uses, particularly if your intent is to somewhat abstract the subject to get an airy, dreamlike feel.

On the left, the bride is facing the window straight on, so the light on her face is even and soft. On the right, the bride is facing the window but at a 45-degree angle. So her portrait is a mix of more dramatic light as well as darker shadows.

#4 Mathematics in photography

The mathematical law of the Inverse Square describes how the illumination from a light source diminishes over distances.

Imagine the beam of a spotlight as it widens and grows dimmer in the distance. Now center a subject in the beam close to spotlight itself and the light will be harsh. But if you move the subject in a straight line to stand about 6 feet from the light, how much less light is hitting the subject them? With the distance doubled, the light hitting the subject is diminished by three quarters.

In a real-world context, let’s say you’ve got a background to work with and maybe a surface to bounce light into the scene. Plus all kinds of diffusers and filters to modify the light source, and a choice of where to place the subject in relation to the background and the light source as well as placing yourself and the camera.

Generally, you can add drama to the image by positioning your subject close to the light source and away from the background. The light will illuminate the subject and everything behind her will dwindle into shadow. That’s a quick and easy way to create a dark background in-camera. Conversely, placing the subject further from the light source and closer to the background will create a more evenly lit scene with a more gradual shift between light and shadow (the background will be lighter as well).

On the left, the bride is farther away from the light source and hence she is more in the shadows as compared to the image on the right where she is facing the window light and is closer to the light source. So more of her face is being illuminated with the light coming from the window.

#5 Modify or mold your light source

If you find yourself with an over-abundance of natural/available light, using modifiers is an easy way to control the amount and intensity of the lighting on your subject.

Sheer curtains and blinds can be used to reduce or diffuse light, making it softer and subtler. You can decrease the size of the light source to increase shadows and increase drama with the use of blackout curtains or by partially shutting doors. Remember, the more light you let in, the less intense the shadows.

I hope these examples motivate you to look differently at shadows. There are no photography monsters hiding in them! They are, in fact, quite useful in adding some drama and interest in your photographs.

The post 5 Tips for Mastering Shadows in Your Photography by Karthika Gupta appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Secrets in the Shadows: Urban Objects Transformed with Sidewalk Paint

29 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

You might not even notice there’s anything unusual about these shadows until you’re right up on them, wondering why in the world a mailbox looks like a grinning monster, fearing that somebody slipped you a psychedelic drug. There’s nothing wrong with your perception of the world. You’re just lucky enough to spot one of Damon Belanger’s shadow art creations in the wild, painted on urban surfaces all over Redwood City, California. Depending on the time of day, the shadows can be surprisingly convincing, catching passersby off guard.

A public bench becomes a cat, a bicycle has a mind of its own and a cartoon train scoots along the top of a fence. A fire hydrant sprouts a maze, and smiling flowers grow from the bases of bike racks. The work was created in partnership with the Redwood City Improvement Association, and though it may be simple, it’s sweet, and a fun way to liven up public spaces. You can see more on Belanger’s Instagram.

“The shadow art has allowed me to bring out a more whimsical side of my art and allows me to play with shadows,” Belanger told the Daily Journal. “The shadows give regular mundane objects a lively spirit so people can have a little fun in their everyday lives.”

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Art in the Shadows: Everyday Objects Cast Unexpected Shapes Onto Paper

10 Dec

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Has doodling ever been more creative than this? While most people wouldn’t give a second’s thought to the shape an everyday object’s shadow casts upon adjacent surfaces, artist Vincent Bal looks at them and sees the beginnings of a character or scene. It might be a phone charger, a fallen leaf, a drinking glass or a Christmas ornament, but in its shadow, Bal sees far more than the object itself.

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Each of Bal’s quick and clever illustrations is a testament to the creativity of an artist’s brain. Calling his work ‘shadowology,’ Bal plays around with silhouettes and light sources to find inspiration for sketches most people would never dream up. It takes the game of finding shapes in the clouds and applies an artist’s hand to the process, embellishing the shapes into something more.

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Calling himself a ‘filmmaker and doodler and procrastinator from Belgium’, Bal shares his work on his popular Instagram account and sells prints on Etsy.