Assignments

Each issue we'll devise an activity or assignment to provide some practice in an aspect of photography related to the feature article. We have two such activities here—seemingly simple, but exceedingly rich in possibilities.

Assignment #1: The first activity is to find an example of an interesting shadow falling on an object. The shadow itself should be of major interest, or its shape should enhance the object it is falling on. You are more likely to find such shapes when the sun is at a low angle in the sky—early morning or late afternoon. Even moonlight or a strong directional light—like from a streetlight, might work as well. But in the examples at the right, the sun is high in the sky but not directly overhead. Usually you want to be sure there is good detail in the shadowed area, but there are situations when you might prefer that the shadowed area goes virtually black, as in the image on the right.

Objective: This activity is designed to provide experience in looking for shadows. They are everywhere, of course, but few are particularly interesting to the photographer. Often we look at objects but don't see the shadows, so here we are asking that you look for shadows. Then the issue is where do you stand to take best advantage of the lines and shapes formed by the shadow. Sometimes that's obvious and sometimes it's not.

Assignment #2: The second part of the assignment is to find an example of a shadow that either frames an object or that gives it depth or texture. Some portion of your subject is going to be in shadow, and that probably is not going to be the most interesting part. Shoot (and/or print) the image in two ways: (1) so there is good detail in the significant shadowed area, and (2) so that area goes essentially black. Then compare what happens to the highlights and the midtones and decide which version you prefer.

Objective: The purpose here is to provide some experience in exposing for the shadows. We want you to make two different exposures—one where the shadows fall naturally, without your thinking about them, and a second exposure where you consciously try to place their tonal value in an irnage where there is some detail, but significantly darker than a middle gray. If you know the Zone System, that means we're asking you to place a significant shadowed area in Zone III. If you've never heard of the Zone System, or never really used it, simply make a reading of the incident light on the subject (or a reflected reading of any area that falls in the mid tones—a medium gray) and close down two stops—that ought to put a shadowed area generally in Zone III.
     Therefore, make your first exposure in your normal way (probably using the built-in autoexposure function of the camera), then put the camera in manual mode and use an f/stop two stops smaller (f/16 instead of f/8, for example) than your initial shot. (That's just a quick guide--it is very dependent on the range of contrast in the scene. In the three images on the right there were both very bright areas and very deep shadows. On an overcast day you are apt to have neither. An alternative, if this is confusing, may be to take a lot of shots and keep track of your exposure. Then spend some time analyzing your images later.)

Conclusion: We hope you will experiment with these activities several times, not just once as though you were simply trying to complete an assignment. The more comfortable you get exposing for areas in shadow and for looking for interesting shadows, the more accomplished your images will become. We realize you can do some of this in Photoshop—that's not exactly cheating because those are worthwhile skills to develop, especially if you can work in curves—but you want to get sure control over your camera and how to read the light and set the aperture properly, and only then use Photoshop to tweak things.

There is no better place to get a sense of the possibilities of working with shadows than in the work of Paul Strand.

                                                                                                    —FLG

If you would like to submit any of your images to the editors of this website, we'll select a few that illustrate the concept of converging parallels very well. One of our editors will probably make some comment--and we'll set up a means to enable others to do so as well on our Forums page (coming in a later issue).

No. 1 April 2006

 Photography is not simply a craft
   or art, but a means of seeing and
    thinking about our world.

There is some detail in the shadows of this seventeenth century Spanish mission south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, but I didn't mind that much of it went very dark--it is the shape of the shadow that was of central interest, not the walls of the old mission. The light is different there—much of the region is 6 or 7,000 feet above sea level and the air is clearer; the shadows seem sharper and deeper at midday, or perhaps that is just poetic nonsense.

Examples for the assignment:

The sun was in front of me and high in the sky, putting the rivets in sharp relief. I was drawn to the combination of the pattern of the rivets and the strong verticals and angles of the girders and trusses of the bridge. I wanted to let the understructure of the bridge go very black because I didn't want any distracting information to disrupt the form. The shadowed areas are in Zones I and II, certainly not in Zone III.

Below is another image where the shape of the shadow, and how it conformed to the opposite walls was the primary subject. Without the texture of the clouds in the sky I doubt I would have taken the picture, as there would have been too much empty space. Note that in all of these cases I exposed for the walls or steel, not for the shadows even though the shadows were the most significant elements in the images.