DSLR Photography Forum

They are often momentary, chance-sent things: a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing a threshold, the shadows cast by a setting sun.
- Bill Brandt

Similar to our assignment exploring negative space, shadows are often an overlooked part of an images composition. Photographers talk a lot about light: golden light, hard light, soft light, good light, bad light... but every light casts a shadow. For this assignment, look at the shadows in your images, and give them the thought and value they deserve.

Not quite what you are meaning, but this is my shadow top left.
And what I did with it progressively, after some thought.
If you feel it is not in context, I will remove it.

NT73, I like what you did.
It's original and funky-cool.

Great visualization, NT...

NT73 - #4 is awesome... in a freaky-cool kinda way...

Nt:that looks like counterstrike with a corrupted skin pak file....

/Paul L.

Glad you like them.
Top left original shot of shadow on canal path.
Top right threw blobs of different colour with bucket in PS over cobbles.
Bottom left took out colour (select shadow and eraser)..
Bottom right. I was wanting to make a world below our world (looking down a hole, to another land). There is bits of drop shadow and a holiday photo underneath it all. And then I used the 'counterstrike with a corrupted skin pak file' tool.

#2 and #4 are my favourites; I like the seen-through image of #4, but the "Dorothy in Oz" look of #2 is appealing, too.

(And, if I only wanted to see photos that look like I expect, I'd just go through my own archives. Thanks for sharing something different.)

I am a bit confussed about the assignment , I thought " all " shadows were bad LOL . is there any examples that could be sharred . I guess my mind wont let me think outside the box .

Great imagintion NT , .......... Shawn

Shadows give depth and texture to an image, they can add leading lines or other graphic qualities to an image. They are a challenge for the technical aspect of the art, since there's often too much dynamic range to capture on film or digitally, but that's a problem with its own opportunities.

I was out a dusk today, and played with the shadows cast by some lights in my favourite downtown square. Night is a fantastic time to photograph shadows, since they're often more interesting than those cast in daylight, and the light isn't as overwhelming.


1 -




2 -




3 -

good work there NT very funky................

Matt.........that last one works for me.........the light is great as is the shadow, the leaf in the shadow is a nice touch.

Wow what a nice place Matthew!, great light and nice shadows. My favourite is #1.

/Paul L.

Nice shots Matthew , I understand now what i am lookin for thanks for sharring ,

I really like the first one .

............Shawn

Well im not sure im gonna have time to contribute with anything this week, so i take what i have for now (read tonight)

Here is a "setup" shot to see how the backlightning was falling.

Got some kewl shadows and colors, and thought it might fit in :-)



The final shot is posted in the showcase forum.

Hopefully ill get some time to explorer shadows a little more this weekend.

/Paul L.

A couple of images from a series I took last week. the location is a recently renovated Arts centre and we'd set out aiming for shots before the light got too contrasty. However, we got held up in roadworks, also by an accident - so by the time we arrived the lighting was very harsh ..... so I specifically concentrated on the shadows and some of the textures of the building. Harsh,stark shadows have always fascinated me anyway



.....and in one corner (you'll need a well calibrated screen to discern the texture in the shadowed section)



Pol

The Bank of England is also known by the nickname (nom de guerre) as 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street'
Being the street in olden times London, where it originated.

As I stepped of the bus this afternoon, I saw a similar named street in a northern town (not London) and not being able to coerce a passing old lady I used my wife. So darkening her face in the process.
The rest of the shadows seem to balance the pic. to me.

One more ............ 'lines' of a different kind alongside the railway lines, a view of part the station platform.



Pol

My contribution

As usual, there's some really great work in this Assignment.
(I wish I got such enthusiastic participation in my Assignments!)
I like them all.

Here's a pair that I shot tonight, with a railroad theme.
Both trains were moving right-to-left at about 20 mph.

KeithAlanK Wrote:(I wish I got such enthusiastic participation in my Assignments!)

Where's the link, where are your assignments set and posted?

I can't promise I'd be able to participate every time but I'd like to have a look and see if I can enter something at least some of the time.

Pol

A couple more, just playing around and looking for shadows:

i took this a while back in Singapore...

Great pictures all!! I hadn't seen them...

I took this picture in the forest few days ago, I worked and HDR with 6 different exposures, but the colors were not so beautiful. I worked a b&w conversion and I think it worked better. I like the shadows in this one.

That's a great shot. I really like the play of the shadows and the highlights on the trees. I really like how the shadows that are being cast across the path, which is such an intriguing element, are coming from tress that are outside of the picture space. It's very well seen.

Thanks Matt for your comment...

I learned a lot with this picture. Great assignment!!