by Editor Lourens Durand 
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 12 July 2024

'Badain Jaran Desert-1' by Ryu Shin Woo

In two recent articles, I wrote about light being the key to photography and yet, when you talk about light, there must be a mention of shadows – the two go hand in hand.

For example, when talking about diverse types of lighting set-ups it is implied that there are shadows present.

• In Butterfly lighting the main light source is directly above the subject so that the photographer is shooting almost underneath the light source, resulting in a butterfly-shaped shadow below the nose.
• The Rembrandt lighting effect is typified by a small triangle of light on the subject’s cheek on the shadow side. It is achieved using one light at 45 degrees to the subject and fairly high up, with a reflector or low intensity light on the other side.

There is no getting away from it – where there is light there is shadow – we need to learn how to take advantage of it in composing our photos.

For example, soft lighting gives a dreamy effect, whereas hard lighting can add a sense of harshness, starkness, tragedy, or surrealism to a picture. Unexpected shapes of shadows can add humour or mystery.

In portraiture, shadows help to delineate the shape of the face and its features, whilst their softness or hardness creates different effects, helping the photographer to define a mood, tell a story or create dramatic effects.

Still life pictures, without clever use of shadows, can lack the three-dimensional reality and look very flat.

In the early days of film photography, especially for black and white, photographers were taught how to use Ansel Adams’ zone system, which comprised of ten zones from pure black to pure white, with 18% grey in the middle (zone 5). A camera’s sensor exposes for 18% grey, and has difficulty differentiating the darker zones, so the generalisation in those days was to “expose for the shadows and let the highlights take care of themselves” to avoid flat looking photos.

Nowadays, with modern cameras and computers, we would tend to expose for the highlights and look after the shadows in post processing.

The best way, actually, is to have a proper look at the histogram on the back of the camera after taking a shot and adjust your exposure accordingly. A balanced, bell-shaped histogram is normally what is aimed for, but bunching the bell up towards the left can result in the harsh or moody effect that is perfect for photographing shadows.

Just stand back and look for compositions with interesting shadows.

I hope that you enjoy the following selection of shadowy photos taken by 1X.com photographers.

Lourens Durand

'Queen of flowers 3' by Peppe Tambè'

'Red Beret' by Bill Gekas

'Ronnie' by Zachar Rise

'Tanya' by Zachar Rise

'Nashmin' by Hamidreza Sheikhmorteza

Arteh' by Richard Bland

'wishful' by Hari Sulistiawan

'of solitude and other demons' by Josefina Melo 

'Love cherries' by olimage

untitled by Antonio Grambone

From the series “Light and Shadows' by Evgeniy Popov

'Daffodil & Mandarin Orange' by Lydia Jacobs

'Noor Optical' by Saeed Dhahi

'Toward the light' by Roberto Marini

'towards the light' by Aylin Erozcan

untitled by Mohammadreza Momeni

'Complex' by YouduTian

'cezalılar' by Ummu Nisan Kandilcioglu

'Shyness' by Alin Petrus

'Game over' by Victoria Glinka

'Carmen by Eleonora Abbagnato' by Flavio Bertazzi

'waiting for hope' by Sara Goli

'going to play' by Ivan Valentino

'What is TIME?' by Victoria Glinka

'Faith' by Hardik Pandya

'Looking for light' by Fernando Alves