the short life of shadow

 The short life of shadow

 When i started to use camera, shadows were hated enemy of me and i tried every possible way to avoid their presence in my photos. But time goes on – tastes and concepts are changing. One day that something has changed in my attitude towards the the shadows and in our with shadow relations. We got closer. We started talking a very long conversations.  About the light. About their strict relationship, the eternal confrontation and very short life of shadow.

  But in a few serious words – adding the shadows to my photography is just great way to add more geometry created by this confrontation of the light and shade,  to add more contrasts with the difference between the highlighted and shadowed territory of the image.  “Expose for the Shadows – Develop for the Highlights” and forget about what is contained in the shaded areas – one of the main rules in my post-processing.

 Samples always work better than words  :   the short life of shadow

arranged shadows

noir of the railway

sunny bench

parallel cycling

animal

the life of shadow – continuation

Thank you…
 
 

15 Replies to “the short life of shadow”

  1. Wonderful insights into the value of shadows. I too am a fan of shadows – the mystery of what cannot be seen enhances what can be seen.

    It’s great to see you writing about photography Victor; your site looks wonderful.

    1. i’m not a big master of saying 🙂 but sometimes i do feel that i have need to express myself not only with photography !
      thank you very much Bernard !

  2. There are again great shots you show. Although the mood in the images are more emphasized by the backlight. But you’re right, shadows give images an additional dynamics, an extra life. Fascinating is always the natural distortion caused by the angle of the light. This is what the images gives a surreal touch at the same time. That is what shadows have in common with reflections.

    1. Thank you for taking a look my friend. You’re right- i love to play with extreme conditions of lignt and the cast shadows is the result of this. I can say that once in my first days of photography i never included shadows and different light conditions to the same frame.

    2. Hey Burkhard ! thank you for your careful examination and beautiful words. you’re right – i don’t cut the shadows from the carrier (owner) and only like to bind them both to the environment that always exist if we want or we don’t want. and i find the beauty to use them together and to see the additional geometry and depth.

  3. Victor and your friend Burkhard – as a very , very, amatuer photographer right now the conversation between you two has delivered words of gold to my ears. I stare at the images and then to hear you both express exactly the perfect description for what I am studying helps me in my mind when I go out with my camera again. I am at such the experimental and exciting stage . To even read photographers talking makes me anxious . So Thank you both very much .

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