What is the Shadow area of a Subject ?

Is the shadow area or part of a subject simply the
darkest part of the subject you select ?
For example when you are in the downtown areas
of many cities where there are dozens of tall buildings
and NO direct sunlight, except the light from the sky
above, what are the shadow areas? The darkest part
of the subject you select?

As highlight is the brightest part of a subject.
Is Shadow simply the darkest part of a subject ?

Thanks in advance
Denny B

On Tue, 3 May 2005 07:28:23 -0600, "Denny B"
wrote:

Is the shadow area or part of a subject simply the
darkest part of the subject you select ?
For example when you are in the downtown areas
of many cities where there are dozens of tall buildings
and NO direct sunlight, except the light from the sky
above, what are the shadow areas? The darkest part
of the subject you select?

As highlight is the brightest part of a subject.
Is Shadow simply the darkest part of a subject ?

No, the shadows is the part of the scene that looks like Cliff
Richards.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga

On Tue, 3 May 2005 07:28:23 -0600, "Denny B"
wrote:

Is the shadow area or part of a subject simply the
darkest part of the subject you select ?
For example when you are in the downtown areas
of many cities where there are dozens of tall buildings
and NO direct sunlight, except the light from the sky
above, what are the shadow areas? The darkest part
of the subject you select?

As highlight is the brightest part of a subject.
Is Shadow simply the darkest part of a subject ?

No, the shadows is the part of the scene that looks like Cliff
Richards.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga

"Denny B" wrote in message
...



Thanks in advance
Denny B

I'm not sure there's any strict definition of shadow areas in a real scene,
due to their being such variation in brightness of the areas that are in
shadow.

You can only really talk of shadow areas on the resulting image. The shadow
areas are the areas that have had a low exposure value, while maintaining a
little detail (i.e. not appearing totally black).

You can choose the shadow area yourself, by metering from the selected area
in the scene, and then exposing it so that this level of brightness falls on
the foot of the exposure curve (which depends on what medium you are using -
digital doesn't really have a foot, which is why it has good shadow detail).
You preferably need a spot meter, and then you need to know the exposure
curve of the film you are using, and where a 'normal' exposure will be on
the curve. You then need to reduce the exposure by the difference between
this point, and the foot of the curve. Typically, this is 1-2 stops for
slide film, and between 3-5 stops for colour negative (someone correct me if
I'm wrong - I don't use a spot meter...).

The highlights are the parts which still have detail, but have had a high
exposure value. These parts lie on the shoulder of the curve. In film this
shoulder is rounded, whereas in digital it is very sharp. When the
highlights are exposed so much as to go past the shoulder, they are said to
have 'blown'. In photo's of sunsets and the like, it's quite normal to blow
the highlights due to brightness of the sun compared to everything else. In
film, the curve allows a 'not too bad' gradation of colour and tone into the
blown highlight, and in digital, each colour channel sharply blocks off
before the blown highlight is reached, and you get a change in colour and
loss of tone. (at least this is the situation in many digital cameras at
the moment).

Is the shadow area or part of a subject simply the
darkest part of the subject you select ?

So, yes.

For example when you are in the downtown areas
of many cities where there are dozens of tall buildings
and NO direct sunlight, except the light from the sky
above, what are the shadow areas?

You need to choose this, depending on where you want the tonal range of
image to be.

The darkest part
of the subject you select?

If you like - but it doesn't have to be. It depends on your subject - is it
a dark subject, light subject? Low contrast, high contrast? For maximum
contrast (and therefore clarity, too), needs to lie on the steep bit of the
curve. Usually placing it's shadows' on the foot will place the subject on
this steep part of the curve, but not necessarily - if the total contrast in
the subject is low, you'll want to meter for the mid-tone, and expose for
that, instead. If the contrast is very high, you have to decide whether
part of it goes on the foot/shoulder/under/over exposed. It's up to you.

As highlight is the brightest part of a subject.
Is Shadow simply the darkest part of a subject ?

Sort of - but I'm not sure what you mean by subject. If you mean the image
as a whole, then I would say you're mostly right. Sometimes subjects, or
even whole images simply don't have highlights, or shadows. These are
called high-key and low-key images, respectively. You could even have a
photo without shadows, or highlights if you have a very low contrast
subject, and expose for it normally.

Hope that helps,
Duncan.

P.S. Are you doing a photography course, or is this just for self interest?