Embracing the shadows

Les McLean

Les McLean

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In landscape photography, are we in danger of losing our shadows, I was looking through one of Joe Cornish books from around 2000 the other day, and an EOS magazine from 2007, and some of the landscape images had deep rich, silky shadows that gave depth and mood to the composition.

Currently the vogue has been to lighten shadows, how often has the comment 'if you could bring out a little more shadow detail' been said in response to a landscape post (and I'm as guilty as anyone).

It would be easy to blame HDR (as it bleaches shadows) for this trend, but I don't think it is the cause . Don't get me wrong, HDR is up there with the Ebola virus, famine in Africa and George Michael that I'd actively help to eradicate, but in this instance I think it's in spite of HDR processing.

Is it because we have so many pixels and/or improvements in editing software that we can push images to extract the last amount of detail without the degradation and noise that was common previously.

Is it a bad thing that the tones are being narrowed, so they are more even across the composition, I don't know? personally, I've decided to take a few steps backward, and not tweak the shadows like I used to, as long as they are not blocky/noisy and have a hint of detail, I'll be inclined to leave them as is.

In short, I've decided to embrace the shadows.
 
Quite agree ... until the last few years, deep rich tones were very much appreciated in landscapes and portraiture. the exceptions were the misty high key examples, which still had a maximum black somewhere.
Detail seem more important than tone and modelling now.
It is a fad
It will pass.
 
If i never knew better i would say you are not keen on HDR ..

I do agree that often you take an image and people want more from the shadows the odd thing of course is even our eyes can only see so much.

I like HDR in places an example is a shop window and the ability to show people getting served.

I do wonder if more used ND grads on the camera more if this wouldnot often help with shade.

Any way far from expert so that's my 2 pence worth

Allan
 
Fully agree! I've heard HDR described as a 'world without shadows'. Shadows shouldn't be frowned upon, and in showing too much you can ruin the balance of an image.

HDR can be a useful tool, but shouldn't IMO be used as an end in itself. Too many people use HDR as an alternative to being creative - press a few buttons, adjust a few sliders, bish bash bosh and aren't I arty?

I tried it for a year or so, had some success, but only when I used the HDR image as the starting point for further work in Photoshop. Nowadays, I just go straight to Photoshop.
 
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