Light and Shadows at Minnie Mouse’s House

What can separate one photo from another is the quality of lighting. If you take a look at where lights falls and can recognize where the shadows are and how they affect the scene, you’re already taking better photos. Natural light is beautiful. It feels different than trying to create perfect lighting because it’s genuine and it is what it is. You can’t tell the sun, Dude, can you move about 5 inches to your left? I mean, you can but people will look at you and quickly grab their children and run.

Let’s look at an example of how lighting, even in post production can alter an image’s effect. This first photo of Minnie Mouse’s home in Disneyland is a great example of not only how shadows come into play but what the shadows are of that can impact an image.

It’s a little flat, so I brightened things up a bit in PhotoShop, never loosing sight of how important those branches are.

Looking to take full advantage of tree branch shadows? Deepen the shadows, fiddle with the mid-tones and highlight the shadows.

Any photo editing software program will allow you to alter contrast. If I were to darken shadows in a dark room, I’d run the light and make a circle with my hand to burn in a certain part of the image. To lighten an area, I’d wave my hand so the light doesn’t hit the paper as long as it projects onto other areas. Anyone want to build me a darkroom?

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