Sep 25 2009
Why Do Today’s Photographers Fear The Shadows? West Palm Beach Professional Photographer
Click to Listen to PodCast – Why Do Photographers Fear The Shadows?
[podcast]http://alluremm.com/podcast/Shadows-by-joseph-cristina.mp3[/podcast]
Why Do Today’s Photographers Fear The Shadows?
Granted know one wants a BLACK SHADOW on one side of a person or object within every single Vertical Perspective Image but I think we’ve gone a bit over board now!
I believe to a certain degree, myself included, we have slowly become Shadow Phobic.
I recall like it was yesterday my first “decent” camera purchased while still in high school. It was a Minolta SRT-102 fully manual, metal frame, 35mm that could actually flash sync at a whooping 1/60th of a second! For 1974 technology, it was no slouch and allowed me to photograph solely in Black & White using many different types film while developing all my own work.
The wonderfully strange thing that occurred during this period was my ability to “ see” in black and white! I looked at images as groups of geometric shapes of light & dark and found myself using shadow to give skeleton to a frame and light to provide it with flesh.
This mind set has carried into my current work but more and more I find myself “Fearing the Shadows” becoming a Shadowphobe of sorts, instead of embracing and using them as I had in the past.
Today, we as professional photographers, are using higher & higher ISO capable camera bodies, Reflectors, Homemade Modifiers, Gary Fong’s, Stophen’s, complete arsenals of flashguns from advanced Studio Strobes to High Powered Portable Flashlights with full wireless (i)/eTTL /II functionality.
Are we making better pictures?
If that was not enough now we are seeing a race for FULL HDR in camera processing in both DSLR and Video Cameras!
… just where will it end?
Personally I think HDR has its place and firing off 4, 8, 16 frames or more to capture a huge dynamic range can be helpful in certain situations. But …
Do we really need to see every single pixel in every single shadow? Come on … Do We?
I relate this Shadow Phobia to the many months of drawing & painting nudes in art school. Strangely, once the subjects were completely nude and there was no longer any mystery or anything left for the imagination the illustrative process quickly became mundane & unrewarding!
Are our images slowly becoming … mundane?
It’s my belief an image is like a book, your mind should have the ability to play, create and be free to interrupt each positive & negative space in the frame! Opening up every shadow lessens the ability of the photographer to hide meaning, thoughts, ideas and concepts within the image and to the viewer, it forces the frame to become as unrewarding as the nude models became to illustrate.
On a personal note: 2010, I am going to make it a point to get back to the basics, so to speak, and possibility add another grouping to my Gallery Work with this topic as a focal point.
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I want to hear from you!
- Do you Fear The Shadows? … Come on be truthful!
- What are your thoughts on HDR?
- How are you addressing today’s advancing technologies?
Thank you so very much for taking the time to visit and read my many rants!
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5 responses so far
I think that photographer need to go back to the roots of photography. inclusion of shadows were important. Shadows give depth to the subject. I don’t think HDR is a practice of a photographer per se. I think HDR is an artist using the medium of photography. I have be shooting since the very early 70′s starting with Black and whites. it there were not shadows the image was flat! Use shadows to create drama, emotion, depth, feelings, more. done blow them all out with a strobe. I shoot 99.5% natural light. Hope this helps.
I couldn’t agree more. We do have a sun and it casts shadows. Shadows are completely natural. Maybe that is the problem, especially in fashion. Nothing natural is good
Rosh
Personally I love the shadows! As with most people who got into photography before the digital boom, I started with a manual SLR camera shooting Black & White film. I loved developing my own film and making my own prints, the contrast filter became my friend. Working with light and shadow to enhance texture and create depth helped to make the subjects come alive in the my prints. The skills and vision that I developed back then still apply to my work today. When ever possible I try to work with the shadows to enhance my subjects, but most of my commercial work is product photography and seeing all the details are more important than creating a mood or feeling. So bring in the reflectors and fill lights and have at it, I’ll save the shadows for another subject.
As new equipment comes out and photography evolves so will new techniques like HDR. As with all things, HDR has it’s place. If you’re looking to add even more detail throughout the tonal range or want to create a surreal look then HDR is worth checking out. I don’t really have anything against it, I just don’t want to see it overused, and I think we’re approaching that point now.
Cameras, software and computers are all just tools, how you use those tools to create your vision is what’s important. I say play, experiment and enjoy, after all photography is all about expressing what’s inside us.
Personally I am into shadows. I do wonder where this strange phobia comes from (‘cough’ flickr ‘cough’) but it does seem prevalent at the workshops. I have to take the time to explain that shadows are the other side of light… without them we would have no direction, texture, highlights, contrast… drama.
Glad you posted this.
BTW.. I have been called a shadowy person, but that is the least of it.
Thanks so very much for taking the time to comment.. I do like flickr as it has it’s purpose but I do understand that you can’t please everyone; ppl will HATE and LOVE the every same frame with, at times, no rhyme of reason for it. I am thankful for having extra time to be able to shoot personal projects where I can fire a bit out of the box, which I love! Thx again for you valuable time!