Recently in Harper’s Ferry I found myself in a situation photographers often are confronted with: an obvious and safe lighting choice, as opposed to a much less obvious but (as it turned out) much more dramatic choice. In this case I was on the pedestrian bridge across the Potomac River with a photographer friend right around sunset. It’s a time when light from the western sky is famously friendly to skin tones and highly prized by photographers because it makes nearly everything look terrific.
In the case of my friend you can see it does all that. It is “yang” light all the way – direct, positive and dominant. Her red hair is set aflame by it while the river below provides a complimentary backdrop. Although the safety bar partially obstructs the background it leads the eye toward the subject’s face, keeping both viewer and subject together inside a zone of security. By most standards it’s a very good photo that provides an art director with lots of space for type if it were used in a magazine spread – and the image also stands well on its own. Why look any further when it’s all right there?
The answer is in the next photo. Now there are several big things conventionally “wrong” with this photo. For one, I’m shooting into the light rather than having it illuminate the subject. This creates lens flare, reduces contrast and risks flattening out the tonal range in the photo. Second, the sky light falling onto the subject is devoid of warmth – not an intuitive choice for flattering skin tones. It is “yin” light – negative, dark and cool. The metal bar coming toward the camera lens is dominant, it separates the viewer from the subject and could be distracting, except for the way it also leads the eye into the photo, on beyond the subject and toward the distant town.
I dealt with contrast and color problems in Adobe Photoshop, which easily handles both. But what we have gained in the second photo is drama, in a big way. My friend called the image “cinematic” when she saw it, which I think is about right. She’s got very good visual instincts, having been a photographer as long as I have, maybe even longer. Although the river is no longer in the photo, by leaning over the railing I’ve underscored the dramatic height of the bridge and its relationship with the town of Harper’s Ferry. The church steeple and the waning sunset add an exclamation point to everything else.
But best of all the subject is now rendered in nuanced light that gives her face a more pensive quality. Although her gaze is just as direct it now has an air of mystery that makes you look more closely than the other photo does. The yang photo tells all, while the yin photo seems to hold an untold story.
It doesn’t always work like this, but it nearly always pays to walk around a subject and look at it from all sides. Give special attention to the light. You may well end up shooting from the obvious side – I often do – but the payoff for persistence of vision is substantial. Look for the yin as well as the yang in light and life.
