Top Photo of the Week
Am switching up the blog to feature my favorite photo of the week,
A high-contrast image of the Cristobal Colón Museo (Christopher Columbus Museum).
The sharp, crisp B&W photo of the brick building with its iron bars contrasts with the black steel gate,
making it feel more like a prison than a welcoming museum.
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This next photo of the side street behind the Cathedral
got me thinking about high-contrast photos.
Where shadows have a deep rich tone, the lights are bright, leaving minimal mid-tones.
It's an either-or capture, nothing halfway...
If you cut back on the middle tones, can you still have an interesting image, or...
will it look simply cartoonish?
For this week's topic, High Contrast, we will be using a "Red Filter" on the camera lens.
The red filter creates more contrast when shooting black & white.
Let's start with this image...
an unusual statue of a standing Christ in the Cathedral museum.
One does not normally find a standing statue of Christ without the cross.
Outside the sun is harsh, much stronger today as there are fewer clouds in the sky.
Here the red filter adds contrast.
Narrow streets create deeper, darker shadows,
adding to the contrast in the scene.
Bright sunlight highlights whatever it falls on,
at the same time, it gives the dark shadows a sharper edge.
With a red filter, creating a stark contrast is a given. Besides giving drama to a scene,
it also brings out the textures of the various surfaces.
This lady, with her best friend, finds solitude in a recess of a church courtyard.
Witness the various surface textures that would not be noticeable with a softer light.
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The next high-contrast image can create curiosity in the viewer's mind.
We can see the older couple going into the church.
But there are other people in the shadows.
What are they doing?
What else is happening in the shadows?
Now, on to my favorite street in the city of Valladolid, Santo Domingo de Guzman.
But first, here is a regular photo taken without the red filter.
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Although vehicles occasionally use this street,
it is more of a pedestrian shortcut between two neighborhoods.
This narrow street has a sweeping curve, high stucco walls, and cobblestone pavement.
All of which combine to offer a textural smorgasbord.
Particularly when the afternoon shadows start to appear...
Using a red filter, the darkening shadows give us a strong contrast,
adding drama to the image.
Note how the texture of the rough cobblestones is enhanced.
The high contrast also gives a greater depth of field to the image.
There is no need for a vignette to focus the viewer's attention.
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At the peak of the day's shadow show,
the sun's angle with the varying rooftops casts
a hard-edge design on the stucco wall of a religious convent.
In another hour, when the sun is lower in the sky, this stucco wall
will be bathed in a soft shadow.
While the red filter does deliver a stronger contrast between light and dark,
it is not good for creating a softer image in portraits where harsh detail is not normally desired.
Like all choices, it depends on what is the effect or feeling
you wish to achieve with a particular image.
Hope you enjoyed this exercise in photography as much as I did in creating it for you.
Ride safe, ride far, my friends,
CCjon
What a great subject, Jan. I don't know which one is my favorite they are all so good. I volunteer you to do a presentation on this topic at the Club.
ReplyDeleteThank you Harry, We were talking the other night how this trip has evolved into a self-directed photography workshop. Which is okay, as am utilizing this opportunity to experiment with techniques, styles, and settings to hone my vision with what is outside the front door.
DeleteI can see a portfolio arising from this expereince. Am anxious to see some of these images in gallery print size..
Very interesting take on lighting and the "embracing" of darkness. I shoot with the objective of "proper" light on subject, not worrying so much about dark spots since they can be "lightened up" through post-processing of pictures..... Your high contrast pictures make one focus on the parts with light, making the viewer focus and discover the details. Narrowing the viewer's focus perhaps?
ReplyDeleteDom, you raise an interesting point. In your work, would High-Contrast work on landscape photos? First it it works best with black & white photos, not so much color. Color has its own power to direct the attention of the viewer.
DeleteHC is a tool for the photographer to guide where he/she wants the viewer to look. It works because the human eye will naturally look for the brightest area.There are other tools to accomplish this directing as well but they don't add the drame that HC does.
The few HC landscape photos that come to mind are the sharp focus, snow-capped peaks surrounded in mist on a field of black. Would HC work when capturing the aspen colors?
Snow capped peaks, I think, might benefit in that HC brings out details in snow but I've found it also intensifies blues a bit much for my liking. As to Aspen colors, it might but for defining edges of individual leaves perhaps?
DeleteInteresting. You went all out with the B/W photos. Job well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you, am learning where to find the high contrast scenes that lend themselves to this type of photography.
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