Arizona Treks

On several occasions I have mentioned Randy Efros and Brett Weston.  I had had the opportunity to meet Randy and to learn some from him.  He was the last assistant of Brett Weston and Brett had a strong influence on Randy and it comes through in his work.  I always enjoy seeing Randy's work.

One of the qualities of Brett and those he influenced is what I refer to as bold contrast.  In many cases some detail is lost in the deepest shadows.  This is usually something to avoid because those dark shadow areas tend to be distracting.  But the way Brett used them, there is a balance that works so very well.

While not trying to copy Brett or any of the others who use the light in a similar manner, I have experimented with the bold shadows.  finding the balance is not easy.  I have had a few successes in this area but many more examples of not so good.  But still I continue to explore this very interesting way of presenting vision.  

Although I can give no specific examples of photographers who use light in this manner, there is the a quality to photographs that use soft light.  I have seen some that exhibit a very different quality and are also very interesting.  I have had more success with this although until recently was very confused about what caused the effect and how to control it.  I have been working to understand it more and to control it or at least to know what to expect.

These are merely techniques I wish to understand better and to be able to use when the photograph needs them.  But also, learning more things like this will help me to grow and become a much better photographer.

This is the first in what I hope to be a series of posts exploring the qualities of light and how to use different light to achieve different visual effects.  Like many aspects of photography this is really learning a technical skill that can be utilized in expression.

I do not know how these techniques will translate into color but I hope to explore that somewhat once the Kodak Ektar film is available in sheets.

The top photo is an example of an attempt to create some bold contrast, the one below is one of my earliest successes with very soft light.  It is my intention to focus on each of these and other examples as well as doing some studies using strobes to create different effects.