{"id":2531,"date":"2018-05-06T13:50:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T12:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/?p=2531"},"modified":"2021-07-04T12:24:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T10:24:43","slug":"black-shadows-or-shadow-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/black-shadows-or-shadow-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Black shadows or shadow details?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some photographic thoughts about contrasts, highlights and shadows.<\/p>\n

Many modern contemporary fine art street photographs and cityscape photographs are characterized by strong contrasts between the deepest shadows and the brightest highlights – which makes them very attractive in common. Pure black shadows and pure white highlights predominate – in between there is only a small range of greytones; contrasts are high.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ansel Adams’ style on the other hand was strongly focused on rich tonal range – plenty of subtle nuances from the deepest shadows over fine modulated greys up to the brightest highlights – all across the 11 zones of the Zone System. He used black and white film and fine art baryta paper containing a lot of silver, which gave him maximum tonality. Ansel Adams often avoided zone 0 (deepest black) and zone 10 (brightest white). Further information about Ansel Adams’ Zone System please see in my blog posts here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Develop and keep your own style<\/h2>\n

However there is certainly no need to follow one specific style over the other – better develop and keep your own style – do not be like Ansel Adams!<\/em><\/strong> – but nevertheless it is interesting to have a short comparison on the effects of brightening and darkening the shadows – comparing fine shadow details to deep blacks.<\/p>\n

Short comparison with two photographs<\/h2>\n

With two of my favourite photographs\u00a0of modern cityscapes I would like to show the effects of brightening and darkening the shadows. Both photographs were taken in April 2018 in Zurich<\/a>, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

My Ricoh GR II<\/a> – I love it – it’s a true little beast with fantastic image quality! –<\/em> is well known for it’s high dynamic range and produces perfectly structured and fine detailed DNG RAW files. The files were postprocessed from DNG RAW to .jpg in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"0<\/a>
\nPhotograph 1-
\nOrange bricks and dark shadows, postprocessed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from DNG RAW;
\n0 Highlights, 0 Lights, 0 Darks, 0 Shadows (see Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tone curve below).<\/p>\n

\"0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"0<\/a>
\nPhotograph 2-
\nBrushed aluminium in bright sun, postprocessed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from DNG RAW;
\n0 Highlights, 0 Lights, 0 Darks, 0 Shadows (see Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tone curve below).<\/p>\n

\"0<\/a><\/p>\n

Brightening the shadows<\/h3>\n

What happens, if the shadows are brightened?<\/p>\n