Digital Photography Lessons – Do You HATE Those Irritating Shadows?

Shadows can and frequently do ruin otherwise good photographs.

The bad news is; shadows are a constant problem for photographers. The good news is, there are a number of simple “fixes”.

First, what causes the shadow? Well, obviously it is caused by the light hitting your subject and not hitting the background behind them.

Not to state the obvious, but if you have a problem with shadows falling on the background, the most basic fix is to remove the background. TaaDaa! If there is no background for the shadow to fall on…there’s no visible shadow.

So, fix number one would be – eliminate the background.

If your session is being shot outdoors, just move your model so that there’s no background behind them. Not too difficult.

If you are indoors, obviously you can’t take down the walls, but you can move the subject further away from them! Shoot them closer to the middle of the room instead of right up against the wall and your ugly shadow problems will disappear.

The second way to approach the problem is to position a light to illuminate the background.

When using “studio” type lighting…just get your model lit the way you like and then add in another light source that lights up the backdrop and totally misses the model.

The additional bonus to this is that with the use of colored gels, cookies, and scrims – you can make this background light throw different colors, shapes and patterns onto the background. That way, you can make it into a design element not just a shadow removal system.

Think of light like a ball on a billiards table. It will hit the subject at a certain angle and reflect off at that same angle – like the billiards ball striking the cushion and bouncing off. (This is important to remember when trying to eliminate glare from eyeglasses.)

Shadows don’t bounce, they are ALWAYS perfectly in line with the light. You can fix your problem shadow by moving the light so that it strikes the subject in such a way that the shadows fall into an area that won’t be in the picture.

Indoors, with a studio light setup, just move the lights around until you find the optimal angle. Outside, you have to move your model around until the light is coming from the right direction. Reflectors can help too! you can change the angle of light when using an on camera flash by bouncing it off a wall or the ceiling. Just be sure the wall or ceiling are not painted a color that will throw an odd color cast on your model.

The final intensity and harshness of a shadow is determined by the size and strength of the light source, relative to the subject.

You can minimize a shadows intensity and the distraction it causes by lowering the intensity of the light.

You can lower the intensity of the light by using less power, or by using the same amount of power – but moving the light further back.

You can wrap light around a model – and minimize the shadows – by making the light bigger. This is done with reflectors, softboxes and umbrellas.

Think of an umbrella or softbox like a cloud moving between the sun and a subject. It diffuses the light making the entire cloud a light source rather than just the tiny little sun. Go outside and observe some shadows before and after being blocked by clouds. You should see a dramatic difference in the shadows.

This article is just a simple primer on light, shadows and diffusion. There are entire books written on the subject and I’d suggest reading a few.

Shoot well.