This article over at Popular Photography will show you how you can use darkness instead of light to make your photos more appealing.
Sometimes dark photographs are even more dramatic and fascinating than the ones with gorgeous light in them. Start practicing with these tips and you can create beauty in darkness, too.
Use “negative reflectors” to define form
Black cards or panels, also known as flags, are popular among portrait and product photographers. They can tone down too-bright areas, prevent spillover from studio lights, and add shape-defining shadows. A more specialized device, called a gobo, fits over a studio light either to narrow the beam with a partial black covering or to project a pattern in black.
•Tip: Create a sense of mystery in portraits by partially blocking studio lighting so that an area of the scene is thrown completely into shadow. Try it on the diagonal!
Use shadows to give dimension to landforms
There’s a reason landscape photographers love the “golden hours” after sunrise and before sunset, and it’s not just the color. The low-angled light creates dark shadows that create a three-dimensional effect; shoot from the north or south for effective sidelighting.
•Tip: For shadowy landscapes, spotmeter on medium-bright areas and let the shadows fall where they may.
Use day for night
This is handheld night photography made easy. To make a daytime scene look like nighttime, simply underexpose it. We mean seriously underexpose it—by as much as four stops. You can make city scenes more realistic by dodging highlights into streetlamps or windows during postproduction to make them look lit.
Use shadow patterns to create texture
A portrait or still life taken with window light streaming through open blinds, for example.“Venetian blind lighting” became a staple of film noir in the ’40s and ’50s.
•Tip: Create shadow patterns with the use of a cuculoris, or “cookie.” Simply create a panel with patterns cut out in it, and place it in front of a studio light. It’s an easy DIY project.
Define a frame with darkness
Use a tunnel, a dark interior window frame, or a backlit foreground landform as a natural framing device. Be sure to expose for the scene that’s inside the frame, not for the frame itself.
•Tip: Use features in dark shadow to define the planes in cityscape photography.
Read more tips over at Popular Photography.
Source: Popular Photography
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