 Dawn Penich |
What Determines Contrast? I am trying to find out how to achieve a higher contrast and wondering what determines high or low contrast?
|
|
|
|
||
- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
It depends on what you mean. With color film, you can just change to a different type, like Fuji Superia vs. Fuji np films. You can have contrast with black and white by either using filters when you take the picture, or using contrast filters when printing. There are also different papers with printing black and white. You can also use lighting for contrast.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Bob Cammarata |
In photography, contrast is the relationship between the highlights (bright spots) and the shadows (dark areas). The easiest way I know to determine or define "high contrast" is to think in terms of black and white. A black lab retriever playing in the snow on a sunny day would be a good example of high contrast. In this scenario, there would be four or more stops of exposure variance between the dog and the background ... hence, the contrast. As to how to achieve a higher contrast, that would depend upon your subject. If it's dark, try to position it against a light background. If your main point of interest is light in color, then a dark background would be more appropriate.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Douglas Chetcuti |
Consider a black and white photo - black being the darkest and white being the lightest. Now consider that there is a scale from black to white with 8 steps of grey in between. This will show a gradual tonal range from black to white. Now if we compress the 8 steps to 4 steps, we will be increasing contrast. In conventional photography, contrast can be increased by over-developing the film or choosing a harder paper for printing. Digitally, this can be done by adding contrast in software.
|
|
|
|
||
|
monx |
If you use film, then the traditional way to increase(decrease) contrast is at the time of development of the film itself by push(pull) processing, which involves over(under)-developing the film. But, if your film is already developed, then digital enhancement is the way out, which by the way, is the only option in digital photography.
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||