Contrast impacts many of your photography decisions, so you’ll come across contrast in photography a lot!
When you compose, light and even process your photos, contrast in photography is an essential factor to consider.
High contrast, low contrast and how much contrast in photos are all important decisions.
What is contrast photography?
When something contrasts with something else, it differs.
So, with contrast photography composition, regardless of the type of contrast, it draws and holds a viewer’s attention by highlighting the difference between elements to create interest. The more contrast you include, or add, the more obvious the differences will be.
While the concept of contrast photography remains the same, how to use it and what it is varies depending on whether we’re talking about:
- Tonal contrast
- Color contrast
- Contrast in composition
What is contrast used for in photography?
So, we know that contrast adds interest to an image, because of the variety it offers. But there’s more to it than that. Contrast is used in photography as a fantastic tool for:
- Creating atmosphere
- Making an image more dynamic or more relaxed
- Drawing attention to a subject
To understand why contrast is so effective in photography composition, read about the Gestalt principle of figure to ground in our tutorial on Gestalt theory.
Now let’s look at the types of photography contrast and how to use it in photos…
What is tonal contrast in photography?
The first type of photography contrast we learn as new photographers is tonal contrast. It’s also the most dramatic type of contrast in photos and a really easy way to create atmosphere in a photo.
Tonal contrast refers to the ratio of light and dark tones in an image. How much tonal contrast is in a photo has a big impact on the atmosphere. You can see this clearly in the difference between:
- High contrast photos and
- Low contrast photos
High contrast photography tends to be more edgy and energetic. It’s often more moody and stirs deeper feelings.
This is created by strong tonal contrast of light and dark, with deep shadows and bright highlights. A typical example of high contrast photography is the image at the top of the article.
Low contrast photography on the other hand is much more relaxed, even in temperament and light hearted.
The lack of shadows and highlights, the minimal tonal contrast, creates this vibe.
So newborn photography, for example, is most often low contrast. Whereas an edgy street scene isn’t suited to a low contrast style as it wouldn’t be vibrant enough. For that you’d need high contrast.
How do you maximise tonal contrast?
The biggest influence on tonal contrast in photos is light. More specifically, how we use light in photos to create or eliminate:
- Texture
- Depth
- Shadows
1. Hard light vs soft light tonal contrast
Hard light creates sharper, deeper shadows than soft light, which could result in no shadows at all. At the very least, soft light shadows are light and do not have defined edges.
So, to control tonal contrast in photography you need to understand the characteristics of light.
2. Front light vs side light tonal contrast
When an object is lit from the front, light fills the crevices and flattens bumps, so there are very few shadows and therefore little tonal contrast.
Side lighting subjects on the other hand is ideal for bringing out surface texture by creating shadows, so is ideal for maximising tonal contrast.
Manipulating tonal contrast in post production
The impact of light on the tonal contrast of an image can be further maximised or minimised in post production. This can easily be done in Lightroom using the contrast slider.
However, just using the contrast slider won’t give you maximum contrast control. These Lightroom tools are far more refined for adjusting contrast:
- Tone curve tool
- Highlight and shadow sliders
- White and black clipping sliders
- Luminance sliders
- Dodge and burn adjustment brushes
What is color contrast in photography?
Contrasting colors are opposite each other on the color wheel and are known as complementary colors (although it would be much easier if they just called them contrasting colors!).
One side of the wheel has warm colors and the other has cold colors. For color contrast, use both a cold color and its contrasting warm color, to create a vibrant image that demands attention.
Contrast photography composition
This is another way of saying juxtaposition, which is a composition technique that uses contrasting elements in a scene to make a statement or create tension, and therefore interest, in an image.
Examples of juxtaposition are:
- A balloon in a cactus field
- Old and new
You could also use contrasting textures, like rough and smooth, for interest in an image, as well as contrasting shapes, such as round and square.
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