The world of shadows and silhouettes in photography. Light and shadow in landscape photography. Daylight. Light and shadows in frame composition

Most often articles about light in photography devoted to studio photography. Based on this, some amateur photographers get the impression that if they do not shoot in the studio, they can not bother with the issues of light and shadow at all. This is fundamentally not true.

The word photography is translated from Greek as "light painting", everyone probably knows about this. The success of a photographer largely depends on how effectively he can work with light and shadow. In this case, we are talking not only about studio lighting, but light in general - from the sun, from a window, from a light bulb, from a flash, in a word, everything that can be used in artistic and everyday photography. If an amateur photographer is not familiar with the basics of building a light picture, a photograph is obtained, he regularly receives frames like this ...

I think detailed comments on the photo are unnecessary. The main problem with this shot is that the type of lighting does not match the capabilities of the camera. As a result, only a dark silhouette of foreground objects against a whitened sky is obtained in the photograph. This is just one of the situations when you need not to trust the "machine", but to turn on your own brains - choose a shooting point and set up the device in such a way that there is something to look at the photo.

This chapter will focus exclusively on shooting landscapes, in which the main light source is the sun. Despite the fact that there is only one light source, many options for illuminating the scene are possible - some are better, some are worse.

First of all, two categories of lighting can be distinguished - diffused and directional.

diffuse lighting

The most striking example of diffuse lighting can be seen outdoors on a cloudy day. All objects are illuminated evenly, the cut-off pattern is practically absent. For landscape photography this is one of the most inappropriate types of lighting. The picture is dull, the colors are faded and boring.

It is very difficult to convey volume in such photographs, especially if the nature of the foreground and background does not differ (trees against the background of trees) - they seem to stick together with each other. In cloudy weather, you should try to avoid taking too much sky into the frame, since the relatively dimly lit ground often turns out to be unnecessarily dark:

You can, of course, "stretch" the shadows in Photoshop, but still, the photo will almost certainly be rather boring and inexpressive. After all, the mood of the picture in most cases is determined by chiaroscuro, but in this case there is almost none, and, in general, there is no mood either.

Directional lighting

In the case of street photography, the source of directional lighting during the day is the sun, at night - sometimes the moon, but more often - artificial light sources, such as street lamps. Depending on the location of the light source, directional lighting can be divided into three types:

• Frontal
• Lateral
• back

front lighting it turns out if the light source is located behind us and illuminates the object or the entire scene "head on". Feature given lighting - a very weak play of light and shadow, as a result of which the volume suffers - the photograph seems flat. Here is an example of such a photo:

Let's leave the flock of birds alone, pay attention to the landscape itself. By itself, the volume in this photo is conveyed very mediocrely. For example, it is not clear how far the birch is from us and we have to guess about it by indirect signs - it is clear that the leaves turned out to be very small, so the brain tells us that the tree does not grow on the edge of the cliff, but much further. The cliff line itself merges with the river bank. In general, the transfer of volume in this photo leaves much to be desired.

But even if we are forced to deal with frontal lighting (especially true when landscape photography during long trips), it is often possible to solve the problem of conveying volume by choosing a shooting point. Here is another photo from the same series, similar in composition, in which a slightly different point and shot is chosen:

Quite another matter! Thanks to the presence of shadows, a clear separation of plans appeared, thanks to which the photograph is "read" much better. We can immediately determine where is the foreground, where is the middle, where is the background. I found a very good trick to improve the transfer of volume in lighting close to the front - the border of the illuminated foreground should pass against the background of a shadowed fragment of the background. Pay attention to the edge of the cliff - the dry grass lit by the bright sun in the foreground contrasts perfectly with the shaded area located below the slope. However, this technique is applicable only on hilly terrain. If the terrain is smooth, then getting a good volume in the photo with frontal lighting, alas, will not work.

Side lighting gives a much more interesting cut-off pattern than the frontal one. With frontal lighting, even if we get a play of light and shadow on the terrain, single objects are still illuminated "head on" and look pretty flat (see the tree trunks in the previous two photos). In side lighting, objects look more voluminous. Here is an example of a photo taken with side lighting.

Although the sun is not strictly to our side, but to the side-behind, the light-and-shadow pattern here appears not only on the landscape itself, but also on the objects themselves, in particular, on the tree trunk on the right. It is noticeable that it is thanks to chiaroscuro that the round shape of the object and its texture are emphasized. It is also important to mention here that the best lighting occurs in the morning and evening, when the sun is not high above the horizon. In this case, the shadow from the crowns of the trees does not fall on their trunks, due to which the texture of the tree bark is transmitted in the best possible way. Plus, from objects on the ground there are long shadows that can become elements of the composition. However, when the sun gets too low, the lowlands of the landscape are immersed in shadow, which often negatively affects the expressiveness of the picture. Here is an example of a photo when the best moment for shooting has already been missed - the foreground has gone into the shadows.

However, the most interesting, in my opinion, photographs are obtained in backlight, that is, when shooting against the sun. I must say right away that shooting a landscape in backlight is not an easy task, but if successful, the result may exceed all expectations.

I must immediately warn you that in backlight it is far from always useful. When photographing a sunset over high-rise buildings, it’s not worth it to beat yourself in the chest, they say, I have mastered the art of landscape photography and know how to use backlight! :) The main thing is not that the light source got into the frame, the main thing is how the light spreads in the frame and how much it was possible to convey in the photograph.

With proper use, backlight can create a unique black and white pattern in a landscape (and not only in it). To implement this type of lighting, you need, at least in the frame, to have a favorable environment in which this light will "play". Let's start simple...

The photo was taken with a telephoto lens, the setting sun was left out of the frame. This simple study shows how backlighting can be used to create light fringing around objects. The only condition is that the object must have a rough or even furry surface. The hairs on the stems and flowers scatter the sunlight, creating some pretty interesting edging in the photo.

Another example is more difficult...

First about positive points. The volume is wonderfully conveyed in the photo due to the active alternation of lights and shadows. Foliage is able to transmit light and create the illusion of glow, especially if it is located against a dark background. In the presence of haze, an additional type of perspective appears - aerial, that is, objects in the foreground are clear and contrasting, in the background - as if in a haze. All this has a positive effect on the perception of photography.

However, there are also pitfalls. The most important of them is the limited dynamic range of the matrix. Even a serious DSLR is often unable to work out shadows and highlights at the same time. The above photo shows that the texture of the oak bark is almost lost, it has gone into a deep shadow. If you try to increase the shutter speed in order to work out the shadows better, another trouble awaits us - the previously small and neat sun (in this case, its reflection in the water) will begin to spread rapidly in width as a result of blooming (this is a phenomenon when the charge from overexposed matrix cells begins to flow to neighboring cells, which also overexpose and overflow - and so on, and so on). Because of the blooming, the sun "knocks out" a significant part of the photo in an absolutely white color, devoid of shades:

In some cases, an ND filter helps to cope with the sun, but it allows you to achieve an acceptable result only if the horizon is straight on the frame and nothing crosses it. This is what the ND filter looks like:

And here is the result of its application. The darkened area of ​​the filter fell on the top of the frame. This allowed us to darken the overly bright sky and reduce blooming, while at the same time allowing us to better work out the dark lower part of the frame.

When dynamic range is lacking, many photographers often resort to HDR imaging techniques. The essence of this technique is that instead of one frame, three are taken - one with a normal exposure, the other underexposed (the sky is good on it, the earth is in black), the third is overexposed (the earth is good, the sky is white). Then one of the three shots is taken using Adobe Photoshop or some specialized program for creating HDR. Here is an example HDR image:

The second problem with shooting in backlight is the glare resistance of the lens. Not all lenses can boast of the ability to give a "clean" picture when shooting against the sun and, as photographers say, "catch hares". Here is an example of what these "hares" look like:

Sometimes sunbeams give a photograph a special zest, but more often than not, they only spoil it, appearing in the most unnecessary places. effective way the fight against "hares", except for the purchase of expensive optics, has not yet been invented, alas.

I can't help but give another example of a backlit photo taken from a helicopter:

Photo - Drilling. Western Siberia.

In addition to the very expressive chiaroscuro, this photograph is also notable for the fact that the sun here behaves like a source of point light. The shadows do not run parallel to each other, as we are used to seeing while on the ground, but with a perspective effect, which gives the photo a powerful internal dynamics. The photo was taken on a full-frame DSLR with a 16mm ultra wide-angle lens.

Speaking about light in photography, one cannot fail to mention such a light source as a flash - built-in or external. Read about the features of using this device.

Usually, when looking at any photograph, they pay attention, first of all, to the position of a group of objects or objects illuminated by an artificial or natural light source. However, almost the main expressive means of the photographer when building the composition of the frame are light and shadows. It is well known that the word photography itself, translated from Greek, means “drawing with light” or light painting. In photography, we are trying to capture the light pattern of the world around us on a plane. But where there is light, there will always be shadow. Therefore, the most important task of the photographer is to understand how to correctly combine light and shadows in photography in accordance with a certain artistic intent.

Light

Light in photography performs both technical and visual and compositional tasks. FROM technical function everything is clear - with the help of setting the light, the desired level of illumination is created. The pictorial function of light is to convey the shape, volume and visible structure of the surface of the object being photographed, as well as the depth of space, to photographs through illumination. It is through light that the photographer can achieve that the subject in the photograph will give the viewer a feeling of softness, elasticity, smoothness, hardness or heaviness. Light helps to convey, for example, the tenderness of a child's skin or the shine of the surface of cutlery in a photograph. The mood of the image and its originality directly depend on the lighting.

But we should also not forget that light not only forms the shape and emphasizes the surface of objects, but also forms the tones and shadows that cast the objects being shot. In particular, good lighting in photography can only be called such, in which highlights, midtones and shadows will be visible. The correct combination of light and shadow in a photograph is the difficult compositional task that the photographer has to solve.

Since light is one of the main means of expression in the photographer's arsenal, it is very important to remember its main characteristics and be able to use it correctly in each specific situation. Light can be hard (directional) or soft (diffuse). Directional light forms sharply defined, too dark and deep shadows. Such light is provided by the sun in bright sunny weather, street lamps at night, or special artificial directional light sources that form a very narrow beam of rays.

Photographers usually don't like to use hard directional light because too thick shadows don't look very attractive in the photo. Soft, diffused light gives a more even illumination of the scene, without harsh shadows. Such lighting when shooting outdoors is observed in the early morning or evening, as well as in cloudy weather. In addition, soft light can be created using softboxes and various reflectors.

There are also key, fill, background and back light. Key light always plays a key role, as it forms the shadows in the picture, revealing the shape and volume of the subject. With its help, a black-and-white solution of a photograph is created. The key light can be directed from behind the photographer, from above, from the side or from below to the subject. Accordingly, the ratio of shadow and light in the picture changes from the direction and angle of incidence of light, which directly affects the character and mood of the photograph.

The background light helps to illuminate the space behind the subject and create a certain black and white pattern on it. The fill light allows the photographer to illuminate all the shadow areas of the scene and, thereby, ensure the creation of a more balanced black and white picture in accordance with the author's intention. Finally, backlighting, by illuminating the subject from behind, allows you to create additional highlights in the illuminated areas and at the same time present the photo in a darker, lower tone.

Lighting can be natural or artificial. Naturally, the photographer cannot control the light of the sun, in contrast to studio conditions, where a wide variety of lighting effects can be created using artificial light sources. However, this does not mean that on the street the photographer is completely deprived of the opportunity to use light as a visual and compositional device.

Here, the photographer needs to have an idea of ​​how high the sun will be in relation to the horizon at a given time of day, at what angle the shadows will fall, and how certain weather phenomena will affect the lighting characteristics.Sunlight can change its color temperatureand, accordingly, the hue in the photo depending on the time of shooting, the weather and the position of the sun. best time for outdoor photography, sunrise and sunset are considered when diffused light is created with pleasant, warm tones and soft shadows. Thus, when shooting outdoors, in order to achieve the desired chiaroscuro pattern, the photographer is forced either to wait for a certain time and weather, or to achieve the shadows he needs through the use of reflective screens and filters.

When shooting in a studio, the photographer is virtually unlimited in expressive means and can use certain lighting devices to create the lighting he needs and draw shadows. Properly built light helps to achieve the embodiment of a creative idea and largely determines the quality of the picture.

Shadows

Light and shadows are almost inseparable things in photography. In the composition, not only the illuminated part of the frame, that is, the light, plays an important role, but also the shadows, which in many cases determine the meaning and content of the photograph. Beautiful and emotionally powerful photographs are almost impossible to create without the ability to correctly compose and control shadows. The use of shadows helps to add a strong mood to the image and the subject, a certain emotional coloring that the viewer always feels. We can say that the shadows help to enhance the overall impression of the photo and its vision.

Shadows in the photo image are determined by the nature of the lighting - diffused or hard, drawing or filling, side or bottom light. In photography, it is customary to highlight the actual shadow, as well as penumbra and reflex. Under the shadow understand unlit or dimly lit areas of the object. Penumbra is a faint shadow that forms when an object is illuminated by several light sources at once, or it occurs on a surface facing the light source at a slight angle.

As for the reflex, this is a small bright spot in the shadow area, formed by light rays reflected from nearby objects. Light can be directed to the subject from everywhere: from above and below, to the right and left, front and back. In this case, each time a shadow pattern is formed, inherent only to this direction of light, with characteristic shadows and penumbra.

Do not think that the shadows in the photo are just unlit areas of the image that do not have any content. In fact, the shadows in the photograph can convey a lot of information to the viewer. For example, by casting shadows in a picture, you can determine the time of day, the state of the weather, or where the sun's rays fall on the subject. The shadow is able to add volume to the subject being shot, it allows it to look more realistic and vital. Proper use of shadows allows the photographer to add a sense of mystery or drama to the image.

Author: TheAlieness Gisela Giardin

One of the favorite techniques of many photographers using shadow is to create dark silhouettes on a light background, which is achieved by backlighting the subject. The silhouettes in the photo look very impressive, give the object shape and create a certain mood of the picture. Shadows can also be more complex than just a dark silhouette. They can be ornate lines that contrast with bright colors and highlights in the image. By creating such unusual shadows, one can, in particular, connect the disparate parts of a photograph together and give it a compositional completeness.

Light and shadows in frame composition

In the photograph, we see the world around us as a combination of light and dark areas. The correct combination of light and shadow in the composition of the frame helps to convey the depth of space, outline the volume-plastic shape and texture of any object, and also endow the image with a certain mood and emotional perception. When creating any picture, the photographer must build a composition where the main attention should be paid not only to lighting and the position of the subject in space, but also to balancing light and shadow to achieve the desired effect.

Author: kevin dooley

Everything in photography should be in balance and harmony with each other. Therefore, when building a frame, it is necessary to evaluate the individual areas of light and shadow scattered throughout the picture in order to remove unnecessary ones to ensure the optimal relationship between various elements Images. If the compositional possibilities of light and shadow fall out of the photographer's field of vision, then the picture, as a rule, turns out to be uninteresting and boring.

In some cases, the wrong play with light and shadow can cause the viewer to really reject the photo. For example, it is not recommended to build the composition of the frame in such a way that the light areas appear exclusively at the bottom of the picture, and the top of the image contains only deep, sharp shadows.

Author: ArloMagicMan

What is more meaningful in photography - the right light or shadows? And is it necessary to place the main light accents and pronounced shadows in the composition of the picture? There are no clear answers to these questions. As practice shows, the identity of the gradations of chiaroscuro in the image, that is, the presence of lights and shadows of equal area and brightness in the image, is by no means a guarantee of obtaining a high-quality and, most importantly, interesting photograph.

A beautiful and memorable photograph may well consist of many areas of light and shadow that are unequal in gradation and area. The main thing here is that the photographer should be able to change this gradation and be able to correctly build a black and white pattern in accordance with his artistic vision.

Of course, such a skill requires some experience and creative experiments. In order to gain an understanding of the subtle play of light and shadow, it is best for a beginner photographer to start with still life photography. Here the photographer can, slowly, think over all the elements of the composition, change the lighting of the subject, while watching how the play of light and shadow changes in the picture. Skillful management of light and shadow allows you to create stunningly beautiful, artistic photographs that make a lasting impression on viewers.

In preparing the article, materials from resources were used

I remember when I was just starting out as a biological camera tripod, I decided to do an apple photo shoot and ran into a problem. Namely: what is better to use to illuminate the subject - a candle bought for a couple of kopecks in the nearest store, or an electrician neighbor, Uncle Petya, with an extension cord and a table lamp. But both of these options disappeared pretty quickly - the candle burned out while I was choosing where to put the apple. After all, you can’t put it anywhere!

This is where Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata comes to mind. And why? Because very good music composition. So in our ungrateful business, the main thing is composition! The shooting location must be chosen very carefully. I chose the wrong place - I failed the photo shoot. Not the horizon filled up, but in general the entire photo shoot! Remember: you chose the right place and lighting - consider that you were almost published on a glossy spread.

But back to my apple photoset. During the same period of time that the candle burned out, Uncle Petya managed to find my father’s stash, and by the time the photo was taken, my “soffit” was swaying slightly, casting incomprehensible shadows and emitting an indistinct lowing.

I had to learn materiel. Nights without sleep, surrounded by cups of coffee and tea, kilowatts of electricity burned and megabytes of traffic spent were not in vain: I managed to determine the basic concepts and rules for using light in photography!

To begin with, let's remember the school problem about apples, like "Petya has 3 apples ...". Everyone remembers that these apples had to be divided, acting as Robin Hood - taking a part from the rich and giving it to the poor. It is the same with photography, because it will not be just an image. He needs what? That's right, share! And we will divide by "three". In the frame, you need to select 3 different plans: back, middle and front. But this does not mean that you have identified plans and the task is solved. No, we're just getting started!

The next step is to study such a thing as "compositional center". That is, a place or object on which emphasis is placed that attracts the eye. And this is not necessarily something of an unusual shape, like a giraffe sitting on the back of a camel. Although, I confess, I would have looked at the outlines of such a rider for a long time.

But the compositional center can be realized in any way: a human silhouette, a bright element of clothing, or just any object, horizontal lines or objects, shooting against the light, using a contrasting background. In this regard, the choice and option for its implementation depends solely on your imagination and skill.

One of the main and most commonly used methods is shooting against the light. It allows not only to clearly outline the shape of an object, but also to create something new, unusual. It should be remembered that light is not an easy thing and can be of three types: directional, diffused, or mixed.

It should be remembered that directional light often makes the subjects being shot flat, so even Hollywood stars know not to neglect the shadows in this case. This, in fact, they collect such crowds of fans. Again, you can't limit yourself to 1-2 shots - the photographer has to make a lot of "brush strokes", changing the point of view slightly to get the right exposure. But you can get a little creative and use reflected light.

Moreover, it is not necessary that it be reflected from something shiny, but we are experimenting - let it be reflected from the object itself! Just do not forget that many objects do not reflect light, but pass it through themselves.

To emphasize some features of dark or plain objects, it is recommended to use diffused light. To help a beginner, I will immediately give a few examples.

Morning - cheerfulness, freshness. Light and shadow, their sharp transitions into each other, the rays of the sun in the morning mist - you can create and create!

At noon, when the sun hangs overhead, even on a cold winter day, you can depict the Caribbean coast, where it is now +35 Celsius.

In the evening, the colors are washed out, turning into halftones. Lots of natural shades of yellow and blue. Transparent shadows, constantly changing their shape. An almost perfect time to create a spectacular masterpiece!

Night. There are a lot of tricks and subtleties here! If you use a sophisticated modern camera, then lighting problems can be solved with a flash. But it's so uninteresting - after all, we decided to CREATE! Therefore, we remember what moves can help us: the light of the moon; glare cast by a fire; sparklers and fireworks. Even a banal match at night can work wonders with its light!

By the way, since we have touched on this topic, a few words about the outbreak. Flash - that's our everything when shooting portraits! Also, with its help, you can “dig deeper” in the shadows, reduce them. Artificial flash light is very good for use in "Action" style photos - sharp, fast edges and outlines of objects in motion.

And, for starters, do not forget to decide what kind of picture we need: contrasting or calm. The first option is quite simple - select the main tone of our image with a bright spot (for example, a bright, colorful belt on a person) and click on the camera shutter. For a calm shot with the colors of objects, we are more careful, we do not use "flashy". The use of a shaded filter is welcome. And do not forget - before pressing the shutter button, check the set shooting mode again. It won't be redundant!

“So, how did the whole saga with the apple end there?” - you ask. I can't answer you directly. But I can hint - have you seen the Apple logo? ;)

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Pictures convey an image of the world through the means of displaying light and shadow. The shadow can tell a lot. This is volume, and depth, and time of day, and lighting, and weather conditions.

Can be used as a silhouette that looks contrasting in a bright shot. Shadows can unobtrusively add a certain atmosphere to the image or be the main component of the image. Each time, before you press the shutter button, you need to take into account the position and nature of the shadows along with the entire composition of the frame. They should not argue with the subject of the photo. The worst mistake in shadow work is when the photographer's shadow enters the frame.

Often, even when the lighting is normal, additional light sources should be used. They can act as fill light. This light softens the shadows in the picture.

If you use the built-in flash in the evening, you get not the best result. The subject is usually bright, and everything behind will be dark. It will look like a black hole. Good result can give an external flash with a rotary head. It can fill a room or space with light. If the light is directed to the ceiling or wall, then the reflected rays will create a good volume.

Working with light in photography is a complex section of photography. By studying the technical nuances and experimenting with external and built-in light sources, as well as using diffusers, filters and other accessories, you can get very interesting pictures.