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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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What Are Burning And Dodging And How They Can Help Your Photos

By: Peter West Carey

When teaching modern digital photography I often forget those new to the general art of photography might not be familiar with classic terms and techniques and I need to take a step back. This post is for those who might have always wanted to ask, “What do people mean when they say ‘burn’ and ‘dodge’ in post-processing?”. If you can still smell the darkroom fumes when I bring up these terms, you can skip over this post.
Burning and dodging are two darkroom techniques used when printing a picture. A negative is placed in a projector and then pointed at a piece of photo paper (much like a slide projector projects an image on a screen). That photo paper is not like the paper you might be used to printing on at home now. It is light sensitive, just like film, and that is the whole reason for creating a darkroom; to control the amount of light hitting the paper which will expose it.
Now then, light from the projector passes through the negative and then hits the paper. The timing of the light exposure is controlled to certain tolerances just as the original exposure of the scene onto the negative was controlled. Light hits the negative evenly and then hits the paper evenly. This works well if the scene is even balanced. But what if there are areas that need to be lighter or darker? That’s where burning and dodging come in and they are simple.
The key to these terms and understanding them is to remember that the paper is white. Dodging is the process of covering over part of the light hitting the paper, creating a shadowed area that does not receive the same light exposure as the rest of the scene. Because this decreases the amount of light hitting the paper (remember; light hitting the paper = darker exposure), it lets more of the white paper show through, effectively lightening the image in that area. Burning is the opposite, it is only allowing light into one area of the image to increase the exposure time in that region and create a darker image for that area.
Both employ various methods of covering, from simply using a hand or piece of paper to creating custom templates. Further, the edge of the dodge or burn can be softened by moving the covering slightly as the paper is exposed.
All of this allows a photographer to create different exposures throughout one frame, which can more closely mimic the scene as it was when shot, or to use artistic expression to alter an image to one’s liking.
Now then, how can you use these techniques for your own gain in the modern age?
I’m going to show these techniques in use on Adobe Lightroom but they can be practiced on any program which allows for selective masking and exposure changes.
First, the image from a recent review of a Sigma 50-500mm lens (click on any image for a larger version).

The shot was taken with an iPhone and exposed for the lens with gray, overcast skies. I want to highlight the lens and diminish the background. The first thing I do is choose the Adjustment Brush and the Burn feature as such:


For this photo, the Burn setting is not dark enough for me, to be honest. I take the Exposure for this mask to -1.17 and this is the result:

The camera and lens are now darker, helping them stand out better against the background. I now want to do the opposite with the background. I want to dodge it to lighten it, further highlighting the lens. I start by painting a mask of the background:

Again, the Dodge is not to my liking and I instead change the exposure for this mask to be lighter.

With these masks, I can also change contrast or brightness (done away with in Lightroom 4) to further highlight my subject if I liked. In this example I am keeping things simple.
The result is slight, but can be more dramatic if need be.
Before:

After:

Burning and Dodging have been around as long as making prints has been an art form where the photographer wished more control over their medium. The techniques are still highly relevant in today’s modern, digital era and I now hope you have a better understanding of where the terms came from and how best to use them.
Thank you for reading.

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How to Enhance Portraits Using Gray Layers to Dodge and Burn in Photoshop

By: John McIntire 

What is dodging and burning?

The techniques of dodging and burning are hand-me-downs from the days of the darkroom. The idea was to manipulate parts of an image while the paper was being exposed to light from the enlarger, where the negative was fitted. In order to decrease the exposure (lighten) on parts of an image, the paper had to be exposed for less time, which was dodging. To increase exposure (darken) it needed to be exposed for more time, which was burning.

Before dodging and burning

After dodging and burning (it’s subtle, look at her hair and cheeks – don’t overdo it with this technique)

One way of doing this, was by holding bits of paper or card over the parts of the image that didn’t require manipulation. Because these adjustments only applied to certain parts of an image, it required a certain amount of dexterity (as well as a lot of paper) to get right. Because of this complexity and precariousness, dodging was used primarily to lighten dark areas. Burning was then used to darken highlight areas.
The Photoshop version of the technique; however, is far more forgiving. Photoshop allows very fine control over an image and even allows pixel by pixel retouching. The versatility this provides turns the traditional darkroom method on its head. It allows you to use small brush strokes to brighten and exaggerate small areas of highlights, or darken shadows, instead of applying to only broad areas.
This technique is very easy to learn, but it does require some practice to get down, as it’s very easy to go overboard with it, and overcook your images.

Why dodge and burn?

Tools like curves and levels give you control over the tonality and contrast of an entire image (excluding the use of layer masks). This is called a global adjustment, but they aren’t always effective for most images.
Dodging and burning allows you fine control over the tonality of your images in small, concentrated areas. These are called local adjustments. This allows you to pick out small parts of an image to work on, while leaving areas that need no work untouched.
While useful in all genres of photography, the use of local adjustments comes into its own in portraiture. If you think in terms of contrast alone; hair, eyes, skin, and clothes all require very different treatments in order to look their best. For example, if you pump up the contrast in an image to make a pair of jeans look punchy, that will wind up destroying the skin tones in your portrait. One of the easiest ways to overcome this is using a local adjustment technique like dodging and burning.
This tutorial will get you started with a two layer dodging and burning technique, that will give you far more control over your images than you would have with global adjustment tools alone. This is an intermediate technique and you need to have a basic understanding of how to use layers in Photoshop.
For this demonstration, I am going to go beyond what I would normally consider acceptable and overcook the image, to ensure that it is visibly clear what is happening at various stages of the process.

Setting up the layers

Before you start this technique, I suggest that you first finish any blemish removal in your image.
That said, the first step in Photoshop is to create a new layer by going to Layer>New Layer or by pressing ctrl+shift-n. Rename this layer, “Highlights”.

With this new layer selected, go to Edit>Fill or shift+f5 and choose 50% gray from the menu. Press OK. Your image should now be entirely gray.


The next step is to change the blending mode of your gray layer. From the drop down menu in the layers palette, choose Overlay or Soft Light. Either choice is fine, but using Overlay will result in a far more pronounced effect than Soft Light. Experiment with both, see how it works for you, and which you prefer. Once the blending mode is changed, you should be able to see your image again.

Next, create another new layer. Layer>New Layer or ctrl+shift+n and rename it to “Shadows”. Again, fill it with 50% gray. Edit>Fill>50% Gray or shift+f5

Set this layer’s blending mode to the same as the one you chose for your Highlight layer.
That’s the preparation work done. Once you’re used to it, this whole process only takes a few seconds. It’s also possible to set it up as an action, so Photoshop will do it for you at the press of a button.

Dodging

To start, select your Highlight layer and choose the brush tool. Pick a large, soft brush (Hardness number is low and edges are fuzzy). You can change the brush settings by right clicking within your image.

With the brush selected, look for the tool settings at the top of your screen. You’re looking for a pair of sliders labeled opacity and flow. Set your brush’s opacity to 15% and the flow to 10% (see below circled in red). You can change them later, but this is a good starting point.

Make sure that your brush colors are set to white and black. You can press D (default) on your keyboard to do this. Also, you can press X to swap between them. Knowing these shortcuts will save you an incredible amount of time.
Now you’re ready to dodge.
Assuming you’re working on a portrait, find a highlight area on your subject’s skin that you would like to emphasize. With white set as your foreground color, paint into that area (make sure you are on the Highlight layer not your image). Because the brush’s opacity is so low, you may not notice a difference at first. Just keep brushing into it, and build up strokes until you have the desired effect. Do this for all of your highlight areas.

With the blending mode set to normal, your highlight layer may look something like this.

Note: If you decide that you’ve gone too far, just fill the layer with 50% gray again and start over.

Burning

With your highlights done, select your Shadow layer by clicking on it in the layer palette. Select black as your foreground color and paint into the shadows in the same manner you did for your highlights (make sure you are painting on the Shadow layer not your image).

With the blending mode set to normal, your shadow layer may look something like this.

After dodging and burning is complete, you may have something that looks like this.

Add Gaussian Blur

The next step is to smooth out your brush strokes. Select your Highlight layer and select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Choose an amount between 20 and 40 pixels, and press okay.

After the Gaussian Blur filter is applied.

Do the same for your shadow layer.

Final Steps

The last thing to do is is change the opacity of your layers. It may not seem like it, but at this point the effect is probably way too strong.
Select one of your painted layers. Find the opacity slider in the layer palette, and drag it to the left. Watch your image as you move the slider and stop once you’ve reached the desired effect.

Do this for the second layer, and that’s it! You have dodged and burned.

The final image after the opacity of the dodge and burn layers has been reduced.

It’s really easy to overcook an image with this technique. Use low opacity brush strokes and take your
time to avoid having your images look like this one.

From Left to right: 1) Before 2) Dodge and burn with no blur. 3) Gaussian Blur filter applied. 4) 

Opacity of dodge and burn layers reduced.

Tips and Notes

• Like most retouching techniques, subtlety is key. At first, overcooking your images with this technique is inevitable. Keep practicing and you’ll figure it out in no time.
• Always zoom in to 100% or closer when working on small areas like eyes.
• A graphics tablet will help with smooth, natural brush strokes. If you can only use a mouse or trackpad, experiment with more liberal use of Gaussian Blur to mask the brush strokes.
• When painting shadows or highlights, try to match the light in the image. You can paint white (dodge) into your shadows, but this will probably look very strange in the end.
• Change the brush size often, and appropriately, to the area you are working on. Keyboard shortcuts make this a breeze (use [ and ] to increase and decrease brush size).
• Experiment with different brushes until you find one that suits your taste.

Before dodging and burning

After dodging and burning

More Tips and Notes

• It’s all too easy to concentrate on the face, but try not to forget other parts of the image like your subject’s hair, clothes, and the rest of their body.
• Both dodging and burning can be done on a single gray layer. Feel free to do this, but the two layer technique grants you even more control, without much extra effort.
• Consider setting up a keyboard shortcut for Gaussian Blur. This saves a lot of time.
• You can create as many sets of gray layers as you want. For example, if you want to use very small brushes to dodge and burn the eyes, you might choose to do this on a separate set of layers in order to use less blur at the end. If you use a lot of layers sets like this, consider using layer groups to keep them organized and don’t forget to name your layers.
• If the shadows and highlights you are working with have very hard edges, try using a harder brush and a lower amount of Gaussian Blur.
• Consider watching and trying some digital painting and sketching tutorials for Photoshop. These can really help to increase your brush control and lend to more natural results.

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5 Tips for Gorgeous Nature Photography Lighting

By: Jaymes Dempsey 

In this article, I’m going to show you how to use light to create nature photography masterpieces.
And I can guarantee that they work.
Why? Because they’re the tricks that I use myself. All the time.
In fact, these nature photography lighting tips can be your photography secret weapon. They’ll get you creative, original photos, no doubt about it.
You just have to be willing to try them out!
Let’s dive right in.

Wait until last light for a breathtaking sky

Nature photographers love to shoot during the so-called “golden hours,” the hours just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the low sun casts a beautiful golden glow over the landscape.
And it’s true. The golden hours are a great time for nature photography.

But if you want truly stunning nature photos, I recommend you go beyond the golden hours.
Instead, focus on shooting at the very last light, when the sun is touching the horizon.
This is the time when the sky often goes brilliant with colors. This is when you get a sunset sky, one that can absolutely blow your mind.
And this “last light” makes for truly breathtaking nature photography shots.
If you’re a landscape photographer, this probably seems obvious. Nearly all landscape photographers shoot at sunset.
But even if you’re not a landscape photographer, I encourage you to shoot at this time. Because sunsets aren’t just good for landscape photos. They also make for beautiful backgrounds in macro photography, bird photography, and flower photography.

So here’s what I recommend:
Get out to shoot during the golden hours. Take some nice shots. But then stick around until the sun is touching the horizon. And start incorporating some stunning sunset colors into your images.
Note that you don’t have to stop when the sun goes down. The colors remain deeply photogenic.
So feel free to keep shooting until you no longer have the light to capture photos!

Photograph in inclement weather for moody images

While golden light is great for nature photography, it’s not the only type of lighting that works.
In fact, one of my favorite types of lighting is the opposite of golden light:
Dark, cloudy lighting. Or lighting in bad weather.

At first glance, this type of lighting seems questionable. After all, during bad weather the light gets low, and it’s often hard to have enough light for good exposures.
But here’s the thing:
Bad weather creates a mood. It creates an atmosphere. And it can give your nature photography something that’s hard to find under other circumstances:
Drama.
For instance, if you photograph when the skies are stormy, you can produce dramatic, breathtaking landscapes.
And if you photograph in rain or snow, you can create a sense of isolation and solitude that can absolutely take your photos to the next level.

Which is exactly what you want.

Use the broken backlighting technique for stunning bokeh

The broken backlighting technique is one of my favorite ways to create beautiful nature photography backgrounds.
Backgrounds like this:

If you look at the photo above, you’ll notice how the out-of-focus areas are intensely blurred. But they don’t look disjointed; instead, they look creamy and smooth.
How do you create such an effect?
By using the light.
Here’s how it works:
Go out on a day when the skies are clear, but the sun is low in the sky. Then find something on the skyline that can come between you and the light. (In other words, find something that breaks the light.)
Trees work especially well, but any type of vegetation will give you some good shots.
Finally, find a subject that’s between you and the “broken” background. Use a wide aperture on your camera, and take some shots.
You’ll end up with beautiful backgrounds.

That’s the power of the broken backlighting technique. You see, the broken backlight will be rendered as blurred pinpricks of light. And those pinpricks are just what you want for the best possible background bokeh.
You can use this for intimate landscape scenes. You can use this for bird photography. And you can use this for macro photography.
It’ll work every time.

Find backlit subjects for stunning silhouettes

Backlit photography isn’t all that common in nature photography.
But it should be.
You see, backlighting can add a lot of drama to your photos. This is often at the cost of color intensity, because the heavier the backlighting, the more underexposed your main subject becomes.
This can be a problem unless you’re willing to embrace it. By increasing the exposure, you can blow out the background but capture a beautiful foreground.
Or, even more dramatically, you can let the main subject become a silhouette.

Here’s how it works:
Wait until the end (or the very beginning) of the day, when the sun is low in the sky. Position your main subject so that it’s between you and the sun. You don’t want the sun itself to be featured in the frame, so you can cover it with your main subject, or keep it just outside the shot.
You also want to make sure that your main subject doesn’t intersect with anything. Ideally, the subject should be framed against the sky, so you have powerful dark-light contrast.
Then switch your camera over to manual exposure. Choose an aperture like you normally would, but dial in a very fast shutter speed. You want your main subject to be underexposed.
And then…
Shoot. Take a number of shots, experimenting with different shutter speeds. You want to capture a beautiful background, but with a completely dark foreground. It may take a bit of testing before you arrive at the perfect shutter speed, and that’s okay.
I also want to emphasize that you can capture beautiful silhouettes of any subject. Trees, flowers, birds, and leaves all look great.

You just have to make sure you get the right backlighting and a carefully positioned subject.
And your shots will look stunning.

Use dreary clouds for beautiful intentional camera movement photos

I’ve already talked about the value of dark, cloudy light. It can add mood and drama to your photos.
But I like dreary days for another reason:
They offer very little light. Which is perfect for capturing long, artistic exposures. And it makes them look incredible because the diffused light results in saturated colors.
Of course, when it comes to doing long-exposure photography, you need a tripod for tack-sharp images.
But in this case, you don’t want tack-sharp images. Instead, you want to capture a beautiful blur, like this:

This is sometimes referred to as ICM or Intentional Camera Movement photography. Low light is perfect for this type of shot because it allows you to keep your aperture wide while still creating blur. This results in especially artistic, abstract images.
Here’s what you do:
Start by finding a subject that’s nice and colorful. The deeper the colors, the better, though the cloudy light will help bring out the hues regardless.
Then set your camera into Manual mode. Choose a shutter speed in the area of 1s to 1/10s. And choose an aperture that will give you a good exposure, while keeping the ISO down as low as possible.
Take some photos while moving your camera up and down, and left and right. Different motions will result in differently-styled photos. So I recommend you experiment with as many options as possible!
One tip is to move your camera along lines in the scene. So if you’re photographing trees, move your camera so that it follows the trunks downward.
Note that you shouldn’t feel constrained to landscape subjects. Yes, ICM photography is often done by landscape photographers. But you can create beautiful ICM shots photographing macro subjects, flowers, and even birds.
So feel free to photograph the subjects you love!

5 Tips for gorgeous lighting in your nature photography: Conclusion

While it can be difficult to use lighting to your advantage in nature photography, it’s not impossible.
And if you use these tips, you’ll be able to capture nature shots that look just stunning!
So have fun shooting and good luck!

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