I love thinking about the relationship of lightness and darkness in photography.

There will be no photo without darkness

I am not alone with my thoughts. Hear these inspirational TED talk of Rogier van der Heide:

As Rogier van der Heide paraphrases: „There is no good lighting without proper darkness.“ 

There is so much truth in it.

We live in a world of great uniformity in cases of light. This forms the way we see and build our world.

Lightness and darkness in photography

For an example HDR photography tries to get rid of shadows and darkness to produce these unnatural but unique HDR look.

But the world is full of shadows and darkness. And without shadows and darkness light won‘t have any quality.

You wouldn‘t see or recognize anything when there is pure white.

You coudn‘t read a text if the font would be white like the paper.

The quality of light enhances the quality of our life. It also enhances the quality of any photograph that is taken.  And darkness or dark tones are essential for such quality.

What do you think about lightness and darkness in photography?