Don't be afraid of dark and light in your photos

Saturday 20 November 2021, 15:30 by Nando Harmsen | 4,461 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Modern digital cameras have an enormous dynamic range. If that isn't enough, you can also use HDR techniques.

This means your photos never need to contain pure white or pure black. Everything is well defined and recognisable. The question is: should you want that?

It's so easy these days. Photograph in raw format, expose for the light areas and bring out the dark areas in your photo editing programme.

There no longer needs to be any blown-out white or blocked-up black in the photo. If necessary, use an exposure bracketing sequence and HDR techniques.

An HDR shot of Carolafelsen in Saxon Switzerland. Everything is neatly within the dynamic range by using an exposure bracketing sequence and merging the images into an HDR.
The result is often a photo consisting only of neutral tones. There is no real contrast left in the photo because light and dark have been turned into midtones.

The photo will also show an abundance of detail, something that often happens in so-called urbex photography.

Did you know that when you look at a photo, your eye is automatically drawn to the lightest part? Place your subject in that light area and it immediately catches the eye. Or you can place your subject as a silhouette against a light part of the photo. It's one of the ways to bring calm to a photo and/or direct attention.

Introducing light and dark into a photo makes the location not only more exciting, but also more realistic. In addition, attention is drawn directly to the subject when it is lit.
Imagine that everything is equally bright. It then becomes difficult, if not impossible, to direct attention. Nothing stands out, everything has the same brightness. The photo will initially be striking, but the attention span will be short.

A lot of urbex photography looks like this kind of editing. Often without any real dark or light areas in the photo. Nothing is left to the imagination.
Making everything equally bright also means adding light to places where there is little or no light. Look at the examples of the interior location where light shines in through the window.

The light has a direction and will illuminate the part of the subject facing the window. The other side is dark. If you brighten that side, it's the same as flattening everything with flash.

Why would you want the dark areas in this photo to be light? You shouldn't be afraid of light and dark in landscape photography either. That doesn't mean it has to become pure black, though.
My tip: make more use of light and dark. Choose not to bring everything "within the dynamic range". Keep the subject lit, and leave the rest unlit or at least much less so. Direct attention and move whatever is less important or needs less attention out of the light.

That doesn't necessarily mean you need to have pure black or pure white in the image. Clipping highlights or shadows isn't always what you want either. But there is no harm in using it if it adds something to your photo.

Play with light and dark. That's what photography is all about. Bringing everything to neutral tones is merely a record of the location.
The funny thing is that we look with wonder at the photos of the old masters of photography, where strong contrasts were often used, and where you can sometimes even see pure white or pure black in the photo. It's therefore strange that this is often avoided in modern digital photography.

So take a closer look at light and dark in your photo, at shadows and contrast, and forget for a moment that everything has to be within the dynamic range. Make the photo exciting again, and leave some things in your image to the imagination.

An atmospheric moment in Iceland. The atmosphere is there precisely because light and dark have been kept in the photo.
How do you approach your photography? Do you also always try to bring everything within the dynamic range, or do you like dark and light in your photo? Share your opinion in a comment below this post.

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