It took me 20 years to find this because no one taught it until now.
In this primer on shadow hacking I’m going to share was I found. If you follow my work you have seen me shift focus to shadow over light. Not to say ignore light, but that there so much focusing on the light has only caused us to learn half of what makes great photos.
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Should you lift or drop shadows? Push or pull exposure. How do we bend the shadow in new ways and why doe sit matter. Today I’ll show you some examples and if you attend my Shadow Hackers hackers class you’ll be ahead of the curve for watching this.
Look for where your shadows are broken and stop photographing light.
I hope this is coming across. I promise that if you start looking to photograph shadow, it’s going to change how you use to light your camera and what kind of results you get. Try this and see for yourself.
Gavin Seim
Things I used to edit with today…
My new Elegance Speed Masks… seimeffects.com/elegance
Filmist, get my free presets… seimeffects.com/filmist/
Lumist actions… seimeffects.com/lumist
BlackRoom actions… seimeffects.com/blackroom
Natural HDR4… seimeffects.com/dynamic
Film is historically lacking in catching shadow detail. This is part of the history of these photographs. I'm sure that the artists would have loved more detail on the dark characters.
That’s not correct. Film has immense shadow detail and usually has more dynamic range than digital. They used shadow because it’s essential to great photography. Just like the painters used it.
This is really great. I want to try this!
THanks. Do it, it will change your whole perspective.
GREAT video!
In addition to your wonderful examples, for me, the best example (of your message) is the work of Italian painter Caravaggio. While he is known for his tremendous use of light, that approach would not have been possible if he had not made such good use of the shadows in every image.
Like you said, we tend to think about light – but really, it's the shadows that ground an image and give it impact. Just like the work of Caravaggio. Here is a link to all his works: https://www.caravaggio-foundation.org/
Yes, thanks. I’ll check out his work closer.
Gav