Without Shadows
Eleven seconds can change everything
If we’ve ever had a face-to-face conversation about photography somewhere in that dialogue I said, “It’s all about the light.”
Today I had the opportunity to provide a near-perfect illustration of what that means.
Both of these photos are good. The composition has a foreground with a complementary background. The tree breaks the pattern of snow-covered picnic tables leading from background to foreground. The large limb from the tree creates a frame over the center objects giving them emphasis. Limbs on the opposite side of the tree frame the isolated table and water.
The only aspect of the composition that doesn’t work is the large portion of white snow at the bottom. I left that in the wide crop to show the difference between these photos made 11 seconds apart to show how the light changed.
The top photo is in full sun with shadows adding depth and contrast. The sun glistens off the highlights slightly spectral in their reflection. The bottom photo appears much more two-dimensional lacking shadows and bright highlights.
The shadowless photo was made after I moved about one step to the left for a different angle. In that time the sun went behind a cloud completely changing the impact of the scene.
It’s been my opinion for many years that when a person understands light that is the day they can call themselves a photographer.
Light brings order to the chaos.
Thinking about copyrighting that phrase.