PHOTOGRAPHY: Shadows or No?

I feel quite unworthy to be teaching things that I'm still learning about myself.  But I've had others who have taken time to share some things that they've learned with me, no matter how simple, and sometimes even the simple things mean the world!!!  So with that in mind, here goes.

Shadows have been demonized in some circles in the world of photography.  Many photographers and many MORE clients just don't feel that shadows are ever a good idea...until they see them.  I use shadows a lot.  I happen to think they're cool.  I will intentionally use shadows to create a look, hide a blemish, give a sense of mystery, and other things.  B&W images are often the BEST looking when using shadows.  Here, I'll show you.  This is one of my favorite images I've ever taken...

Notice how the blackness and shadows surrounding Erin make her face POP!  I did much of this before ever snapping the photo.  This photo was made in an abandoned old building at about 3:00pm.  It was pretty dark on the inside.  So I stood inside with Erin while her Mom stood outside with a standard 5-in-1 reflector.  Using the bright silver foil side, I had her bounce the sunlight from behind the building through the front door and hit Erin's face with it.  At post edit, I increased the contrast, used Photoshop to blacken out a couple of things that were still visible, and the rest is pretty much history!

But B&W's are not the only time shadows can be cool.  I recently shot Jillian's press kit images.  We were in the lobby her apartment building where there was a fireplace with some dark wood facing away from the big window behind it.  So for kicks, I placed Jillian against the edge of the fireplace where the outside light would highlight the edge of her hair, lowered my shutter speed just a touch, adjusted the ISO and fired away.  The result gave a softness to the photo that we both really liked and the image made it to her final cut.  Here.  See for yourself...

There's a reason we are called artists.  We create ART!  We're not copyists.  Art is always imitated, but find your way of doing something that someone else would say is wrong in your art.  Push your own limits a little and do stuff just to say you tried it.  Sometimes you get the winning outcome and sometimes you learn what NOT to do.  But either way, you had fun and let out the artist within you.  And that will make you BETTER!!!  That's all for now.  Later.