Contrast and Drama

Today we have a guest post by my husband, who does wildlife photography as a hobby:

 Contrast and Drama

Contrast and light can contribute a lot to the emotional impact of an image.  Harsh lighting creates a very dramatic, bold feel.  Soft lighting can create an intimate or playful feeling.  Some things to think about when looking at the light for a photograph are how direct the light is and where do the shadows fall in the image.  An image captured in direct sunlight will have tremendous contrast, so that either the shadows will be almost completely black or the highlights blown-out white.  Images created in shade or on cloudy days have a much lower contrast.

Here are a few examples from some of my recent work.  Take this photograph of an American Black Bear:

Not too bad, and he looks appropriately menacing, but the lighting isn't helping.  Compare to this image:

The high contrast here gives the image a much more dramatic feel.  The glint of light on one eye with the other side of the face dark makes the bear seem much more intense.  The contrast better suits the subject.

Here is an alternate example.  Consider the cute cub:

This image has a similar contrast to the previous image, but the effect is not as pleasing.  This guy still looks cute, but again the light isn't helping us.  Compare to this example:

The contrast in this image is similar to the first image in the post, but here the lighting is much more appropriate for the subject.  I think most people would agree that this is the more pleasing image.

In portrait photography, sometimes men look better with a higher contrast lighting which can make them look rugged or dangerous.  Women, on the other hand generally prefer images of themselves with softer lighting.  Although this is often violated for dramatic effect in advertising or sports photography, it is not necessarily the most flattering to the subject.

Hopefully this gives you something to think about when choosing the lighting for your images.