DSLR Photography Forum

Where there is much light, the shadow is deep.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I don't think that Goethe was writing about photographers, but he's absolutely right. Shadows and their placement is always part of how we work with light, but sometimes they can add valuable elements to a composition in their own right. Don't just think of shadows as a place where light isn't. For this assignment let's look at photos that use shadows to add to the composition or reveal something in their own right.

While I always prefer to see new photos for assignments, good shadows require a hard light that's not always co-operative. Examples of past successes, or images that weren't quite what you wanted but have learned from, are also welcome.

I'll confess that I didn't take these three for this assignment, but they are all new photos that I probably wouldn't have bothered developing, or would have developed differently, if I wasn't looking for shadows.


Extinct Bison, Page Museum of the La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California


2314, Venice Beach, California


Picket Fence, Venice Beach, California

I'm claiming an exemption on "Picket Fence", the last photo, because even though the nominal subject isn't shown, I did take the photo for the shadow.

Picket Fence is great.

This scene (Adelaide Botanic Gardens) was bright light and dark shadows. I used HDR to keep more details in the shadows.

I'm gonna throw this in.

A few new ones for this assignment:

I tried this one without the shadow, and it just isn't as effective.



But it probably makes more sense in colour:



This was taken at a "Little America" hotel in Wyoming, where they were quite effectively turning the desert green.

Taken for the assignment in the industrial port.