Project 52 - Week 30: Shadows In Photography

I almost backed out of the blog circle this week.  It's been pretty hectic getting client orders together, our weather system not only dumped tremendous amounts of rain our way, but also brought heavily damaged and flooded areas in our local communities, and I wasn't sure I would be able to put any time in getting photos for the week.

However, I got lucky, deciding to take my camera along for an early evening walk with Billie to a local park on a changeable sky type of day.

I think shadows are important in photography.  They help tell the story.  Sometimes photographers try to get rid of shadows in their photos.  There are many editing tools to "bring out" (as in eliminate, or lessen) shadows, and there are times when they are helpful and necessary.  But not every time.

On this particular evening, we were going from a rather cloudy day to the sun finally trying to make an appearance.  I knew that this park would give me some great areas to find the shadows I was looking for in terms of this particular set of photos.

There is a boardwalk path into the woods in the park.  You can see the dark and shadows off to the left, moving to the brightening area to the right.  I used no flash and tried to get my camera settings as close to the light situation as possible, as I wanted the photo to be a true reading of the light.  This is the result.  It is a true photo with no light enhancements.  The shadows tell you the story of the woods here.  Billie is watching for chipmunks.  They are very plentiful under this boardwalk!

Here is a close up of the same scene.

In this photo I enhanced the light a bit in editing, but you can still see  the shadows telling you the story of the wooded area on the left and the brightness of the lake area on the right.  If I were doing anything with this photo other than using it as a blog example, I might edit out the tree growing out of Billie's head.  On this particular path, it's very hard NOT to get a tree growing out of a body part.

You can certainly see the difference in the story from this second photo to the the first photo.  Which do you prefer?

Finally, on my way out of the park, I met two very nice young people with a Golden Retriever puppy named Cooper.  I asked them if I could snap a photo of Cooper, and they agreed and set him up in a spot that I thought would give another example of using shadows to your advantage in photography.

By placing Cooper more in the sunlight and using the shadows in the background as a backdrop, Cooper stands out more in the photo.  You can see that I made sure that the sunlight hit his lower body and not his face.  You can also see the long shadows of the evening all around him.  This particular evening turned out to be a beautiful night, thankfully after all the rain we have been having.  Cooper is still wet from his swim in the lake in this photo.

To see more shadows and more interpretations of this week's theme, start with SamAdele Pet &Equine Photography covering the Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham areas, United Kingdom.  Then look for the links at the end of each blog to continue through the circle until you arrive back here again.  Happy weekend!