Shadows help define shapes into forms and make textures show up (Figure 8.11). Side light is an important light for many black-and-white photos because it does such a good job of both. Start looking for shadows and what they’re doing in your blackand-white landscape, but also remember that although shadows can help, they also can hurt. Shadows in the wrong places across your scene can be distracting at any time, and this will be especially true with black-and-white imagery. Now a caution: As soon as I say dramatic light is great, I know many people reading this will just start shooting dramatic light. But this isn’t a cure-all that always works. It can be very effective for a black-and-white photo, but on the wrong subject, it can be terrible. Dramatic light coming from one direction may make a landscape look great, but from another direction at a different time of day, the light can look terrible because of shadows being in the wrong places, for example. Also, dramatic light can be a challenge for exposure, especially if you have large areas of dark from shadows (this can be a large shadow or lots of shadow in texture). Your camera will see those dark areas and often overcompensate and cause important sunlit areas of the scene to be overexposed. Dramatic light can lose its effect when this happens. You may have to underexpose such scenes in order to hold the drama. However, this doesn’t mean automatically shooting with a lot of underexposure, either—that can make for very murky, muddy-looking black-and-white photos.
FIgurE 8.11 The dramatic light on this landscape from California’s Alabama Hills gives the image an abstract design of light and shadow.
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ISO 100 1/45 sec. f/16 60mm (Four Thirds)