By : Nikon School Blog | 18 Sep, 2017 |
Bored of shooting streets, landscapes, and portraits? Enough of shooting things? How about chasing the shadows of those things and create interesting images?
Where to look for shadows?
Shadows are everywhere around us. Whenever light falls on a subject, shadows are formed. You just have to wait for the right time. The really attractive, long shadows are found during the early morning hours and late evening. Now all you have to do is look for subjects which create attractive shadows.
Some of the most interesting shadows are formed by people, staircases, buildings, animals, bi-cycles and everyday household things like flower pots, statues, etc. Shadows are also formed by clouds, aircrafts, or birds in flight.
You can even experiment with your own shadow. Just pose at the right time of the day and look for interesting compositions.
Look for interesting patterns created by window panes, grills, and other household structures.
You can create really interesting images by juxtaposing shadows of unrelated objects. Often such shadows can create an illusion of something entirely different.
Which mode?
Shadows can be shot in any exposure mode. For quick shooting, Programmed auto, and Aperture priority are preferred. The key is to underexpose the shot by at least one stop to get dark shadows.
Other settings
Active D'lighting should be turned off so that shadow recovery is disabled.
Picture control can be set to Vivid, or monochrome, to get dark, high contrast shadows.
It can take a long time to see shadows in this way, and being patient is the key to developing the eye to find interesting shadows.
