“๐๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ด๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ”
Debbie Stott
Over the years, I have come up with this as my own way of thinking about the relationship between light and shadow – the two of them play together, but only in the spaces between objects, where we don’t normally look.
Iโm fascinated by light but to be honest, I didn’t take much notice of it until I became a photographer. But, light is essential for taking a photograph. After all ,the word “photographyโ comes from from the Greek ๐ฑ๐ฉล๐ต๐ฐ๐ด meaning “light” and ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉรฉ representation by means of lines or “drawingโ, together meaning “๐ฅ๐ณ๐ข๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ตโ.
Light provides an image with brightness and darkness, but also form, tone, mood and atmosphere. The softness of early morning light and the effect that household lighting has on a photograph, can change the whole mood of a photo.
An image made just with light is two dimensional and over exposed. Shadows add depth, texture, shapes. The opposite is also true. You cannot make an image comprising purely of shadows, otherwise it is not an image. It’s just a black hole.
A fundamental Everyday Delights practice
I’ve come up with a process called “Look into the Spaces” that is a fundamental practice for my photography. It is generally the first thing I think about when I start a photo session – indoors or outdoors.
The key to this approach, is to look into the negative space beyond the subject of the photograph to see if there is anything of interest there.
And do you know what? There normally is!
Some other posts linked with this topic of light and shadow
Very cool. I’ve started to look in the shadows sometimes too, especially when I’m walking the dog or at concerts.
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