Shadow is photography too

Learning goal

You will be able to use shadow not as a flaw but as one of the materials of a photo. You will show with examples that the form shadow on an object gives it volume, that a shadow falling on the ground or a wall tells depth and place, that shadows can be lines and patterns in their own right, and that darkness can add mystery to a scene; you will decide deliberately whether or not to leave detail in the shadows, and you will complete the light journal you have kept throughout the module.

The question

Many beginning photographers fight shadow. They wipe the shadow off a face with flash, light up the corners of a room with lamps, turn a dark street into day with the phone's night mode. The goal is for everything to be visible. In the end everything really is visible, but the photo often turns into a flat, crowded record that tells nothing.

Should we be afraid of shadow? No. Shadow is the other side of light, and without it light can tell nothing. What shows our eye the roundness of an apple, the lines of a face, the depth of a street is the shadow standing next to the light. In this lesson we will talk about how shadow adds shape, depth and mystery to a photo, and when to open it up and when to leave it to darkness.

Context

Throughout this module you have studied the direction, hardness and color of light and how it changes with the hours of the day. Shadow was there in each of them: the triangle side light leaves on a face, the short, dark shadows of the noon sun, the long shadows of the golden hour, the soft darkness on the far side of window light. But most of the time we treated shadow as something to be opened up, filled or softened. This last lesson turns that view around.

In painting, this mutual relationship between light and dark is called "chiaroscuro", an Italian word meaning light-dark, and for centuries it has been used as one of the basic ways of telling form and drama. The photographer has the same tool. Deciding which area will be left to darkness is as much a photographic decision as deciding which area will stay in the light. When you make this decision deliberately, shadow stops being the empty part of the photo and becomes part of the story.

Simple explanation

How does shadow show shape and depth?

There are two kinds of shadow on an object. The form shadow is the darkness that forms on the surface of an object turning away from the light: the side of an apple not facing the light, the far side of the nose on a face, the inside of a fold in fabric. This shadow tells the object's roundness, its hollows and its bumps. A slow transition from light to dark tells a round surface, a sharp transition an angular one. Without a form shadow, you can't see the difference between a ball and a circle in a photo.

A cast shadow, on the other hand, is the shadow an object leaves on another surface by blocking the light: the shadow of a tree falling on the grass, the silhouette of a person falling on a wall. A cast shadow tells where the object stands and where the light comes from. The shadow a cup casts on a table sets it down on the table; a cup with no shadow can look as if it is hanging in the air. Long evening shadows add a sense of place and time to a scene: objects are linked to one another by lines stretching across the ground, and the scene deepens.

How does shadow turn into a pattern?

Sometimes the shadow becomes the subject itself. Sun passing through the gaps of a shutter draws a striped pattern on the wall and the floor. The leaves of a tree leave a moving lace on the ground. The railing of a staircase casts rhythmic shadows on the steps. These patterns add graphic strength to a scene and turn an ordinary wall or pavement into an interesting surface.

The secret of photographing shadow patterns is to see them as an object. Focus on the shadow itself: where does it start, what shape does it draw, how does it divide the frame? When you place a person inside a shadow pattern, the pattern stretches across that person's face and clothes, and the photo becomes both a portrait and a study of form. This kind of light is usually hard light; sharp-edged shadows need a clear sky and the hours when the sun shines directly.

When should darkness be left alone?

The detail inside the shadows doesn't need to be visible in every photo. Leaving most of a photo in dark tones and lighting only a small area is called low key lighting. This approach hides information and makes the viewer curious: what is inside the darkness? A single face lit by candlelight, a figure standing under a lamp on a dark street, a single flower in front of a black background carry this mystery.

When you leave shadow to darkness, the real question is whether you want shadow detail or not. If you don't want detail in a dark area, you expose the photo for the bright area and the shadows slide into black. If you want detail, you either reflect a little light into the shadow or brighten the exposure a little. You will see how this decision is read with the histogram in the exposure module. There is a point to watch here for skin tone. In a low key portrait, dark skin can easily merge with a dark background and disappear. Leaving a thin line of light at the edge of the face, or a small highlight on the forehead or cheekbone, keeps the shape of the face readable inside the darkness. On light skin, the same darkness separates the face from the background by itself; there the danger is that the lit side glows too much and loses its detail.

Visual evidence

Imagine photographing a woman reading a book in a room with wooden shutters twice, in the afternoon. First the shutters are fully open and the room is filled with daylight. The woman, the armchair, the bookcase and the paintings on the wall are all evenly lit; there is almost no shadow. Everything can be seen, but the eye doesn't rest anywhere; the frame is like an inventory of the room.

Then you almost close the shutters; the sun only filters in through the gaps. Thin, diagonal strips of light fall on the wall, the armchair and the woman. The bookcase and the paintings have sunk into darkness. One of the strips of light passes across the middle of the woman's face: her eye and cheek are lit, her forehead and chin are in shadow. The pages of the book glow inside a strip. On the woman's dark-skinned face there is a warm glow where the strip passes, and the lines of the face are drawn inside the darkness by this glow. The room is now nothing but a few lines of light and a face; shadow hides everything else. The same room, the same woman, the same sun; the difference is made by the area left to shadow.

Common mistakes

Summary

Shadow is the other side of light: the form shadow gives objects volume, the cast shadow tells depth and place, shadow patterns add graphic strength to a scene, and darkness adds mystery to a photo. Instead of fearing shadow, deciding deliberately which area will stay in the light and which will be left to darkness, while keeping the shape readable especially on faces, turns shadow into a tool of storytelling.

Mini assignment

This assignment is the last page of the light journal you have kept throughout the module.

1. Photograph the subject you chose for your light journal once more, at a time and from an angle where its shadow is most visible.
2. At home or on the street, find a shadow pattern left by a shutter, a tree or a railing, and photograph it, making the pattern the subject of the frame.
3. Put all the frames in your light journal, shot at at least three different times, in time order.
4. Under each frame, write a short sentence each on the quantity, direction, quality and color of the light, and on what the shadow adds to the photo.

Check yourself

• Does your light journal include at least three different times of day of the same subject?
• Were you able to make the shadow pattern the subject itself?
• Were you able to explain in each frame what the shadow adds to the photo or what it hides?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What does a form shadow tell about an object?

• A) Its color
• B) Its volume, roundness or angularity
• C) Its weight
• D) Its price

2. What does the shadow a cup casts on a table add to the photo?

• A) It sets the cup down on the table and shows the direction of the light
• B) It changes the color of the cup
• C) It blurs the cup
• D) It adds nothing

3. What does low key lighting describe?

• A) Every part of the photo being evenly lit
• B) The photo being completely white
• C) Light coming from below
• D) Most of the photo being left dark and a small area being lit

4. In a low key portrait, what can you do so that a dark-skinned face doesn't disappear in the darkness?

• A) Leave the face completely in darkness
• B) Turn the photo black and white
• C) Leave a thin line of light or a small highlight at the edge of the face
• D) Make the background completely dark too

Answers

1. B — The darkness on the surface turning away from the light tells the object's shape; a slow transition shows a round surface, a sharp transition an angular one.
2. A — A cast shadow shows where the cup stands and from which direction the light comes; an object with no shadow can look as if it is hanging in the air.
3. D — Low key lighting hides information in darkness and lights only a small area, making the viewer curious.
4. C — Dark skin can merge with a dark background; a thin line of light or a small highlight at the edge keeps the shape of the face readable in the darkness.

Summary card

• Shadow is the other side of light; without it light can tell nothing.
• The form shadow tells volume, the cast shadow place and depth.
• Shutter, tree, railing: make the shadow pattern the subject.
• Low key: leave most of it to darkness, light a small area.
• Let the shape of a face read even in the dark: leave a thin line of light at the edge.

Bridge to the next lesson

The module where you learned to see light ends here: you have got to know its quantity, direction, hardness, color, its hours, its weather, your window and your shadow. Now it's time to decide what to take into this light and what to leave out. The next module opens with composition, and its first question is this: why does what you leave out of a photo matter? There you will see that the frame is a choice, and that what you leave outside is part of the story too.