Shadows Tell The Story Of Light ( Maybe a Point to Remember in Post )

[Stevie n]

I was doing some photoshop training and this chap an Australian called Adam Williams said of shadows, they tell the story of light. Prior to that statement I always reached for the shadows slider
and pushed it hard to the right. This morning i took a head shot of my dog Rosie, the sun was low and strong. The right side of her face was strongly side light with the left side of her face in heavy shadow. I tried all manor of solutions, removing the shadow , half removing it and leaving it alone. I ended up leaving it alone because it told the story of the lighting conditions and produced a little bit of mystery. What do you think to this manner of thinking ?

 

[Robin]

I have been lightening shadow since starting in digital photography. Then last year in our local yearly photographic competition someone put in a shot of a woodland bird half in and half out of deep shadow.
I Would not have normally given it a second look as the shadow seemed irretrievable , but to my surprise the Judge placed it.
So thinking about it a little deeper the shot actually seemed to work. So where i Would have disregarded a shot like that i will now reserve my judgement. As you say a little bit of 'dark' mystery to the bird and the image overall .

 

[Squawk]

If you whack out the shadows and highlights you’re flattening the dynamic range. I’ve done this loads of times to get a certain look (mostly in B&W) and it’s great. But dynamic range is also wonderful and more dramatic so if you’ve not had fun with the black and white slider or played with setting the black point and white point you may be in for a treat. You don’t have to limit yourself to one or the other. Note - as I don’t use Adobe some of this may not make sense to Adobe users.

 

[Promapper]

All this so true, A local group I belong to has this month a theme of "of shadows and light". I look forward to other posts that I may share

 

[Steve]

That's great advice and there's definitely a balance to be struck. I know I'm guilty of occasionally dragging the slider too far to the right! Of course, you have to do it on an image-by-image basis. I think it depends on the rest of the shot as well as how the shadows are interacting on the subject.

 

[DRwyoming]

What do you think to this manner of thinking ?

I think you've made a good observation, shadows are what give contour, depth and texture and completely removing them can often harm rather than help an image. That said, we often shoot wildlife in less than ideal light and unless you're going for a very hard edged dramatic look some opening up of shadows can help.

If you study portraiture and lighting styles a lot of it revolves around the use and placement of shadows but also includes thoughts about gently or not so gently filling those shadows depending on the desired look. All of that can apply to nature and wildlife photography as well but we often lack the ability to easily fill shadows in the field and that's where some careful use of the Shadows slider can often help an image. But like anything, taking the idea too far and completely washing out the shadows can do more harm than good.

 

[Viathelens]

Knowing the message or story you want to convey to the viewer can help to decide if you want to leave more or less intense shadows or any shadow at all. To convey mystery, sorrow, a dark mood, a wide range of tones, then shadows are an important component in the image. To convey happiness, joy, a high key effect then shadows would be minimal or non existent. Think about how we perceive shadows; we say "in the shadows" to convey something that is secret or obscure and our images should reflect this thought to convey mood. Shoot with intent and this helps to know if you want to shoot to create or diminish shadows. A shadow can be a key element to an image and the story. When using shadow as an element think about how hard you want the shadow to be, too, as this is important to the story. Someone mentioned setting a black and white point, and they weren't sure if you could do this in Adobe products, and this is a good start to any image. This can be done in LrC as well as PS. In LrC hold down the option or alt key with either the black, white or shadow slider until a tone appears.

 

[gordon_g]

As a general rule I like more dynamic range in a photo... but it's always a struggle between shadows and detail... esp with wildlife... I personally feel it okay to have some shots where it's so dark you can't see any detail after all we see that in the real world everyday. However the world of Photography loves well lite highly detailed photo's (as a general rule). like anything else rules are made to be broken!.

 

[Stevie n]

Thank you for all your input I have read it all with great interest

 

[ssheipel]

Can't have light without darkness I shoot virtually all of my portrait work with artificial light; inside or out; balanced with, or eliminating ambient. No detail (total black or total white) can be a very effective tool for highlighting the subject and saying something, etc. That's not what we normally 'see' of course when we're shooting wildlife even in low light so for me why a blown out sky just doesn't work as a background of a bird on branch, or a silhouette I wouldn't want to total blackness, even tho it might look so (as examples); it just ain't natural to my eye for nature photography. So, in the subject matter for me there should be some detail even if it's not overly evident it's there. And if no detail (or heavily shadowed) then again for me it's gotta simply be such that it's not noticeable or doesn't matter it's there (spots on cloud has no detail or a bit of a black wing, for example), if any of that makes sense

 

[Capturingtheunseen.com]

I bring up shadows all the time with bird photography, but there is definitely a point of diminishing returns, and even making the image worse than it was before. Lack of light means lack of detail, and bringing them up too much results in a nasty and unnatural look. You can combat this to a small degree by using localized saturation and contrast adjustments, but not by much.