Crispy Contrasts or how to catch the eye!

 I love contrasts! My camera too! And its autofocus system is crazy about contrast at a point that if there isn't any, it refuses to work properly! Contrasts are an important part of this life. Contrasts in lines, in colors and gray tones, in people and subjects, even in opinions... Contrasts are creating differentiation between things, surfaces, graphic forms, etc. Contrasts catch your attention and are pushing us to try to get more details which are part of the image definition. Yes, we love or hate, for some, contrasts but we are not indifferent to contrasts, even on a very philosophical point of view.

Getting the maximum contrast and preserving a maximum of details, that is the question! How can we do it without losing too much differentiation while maintaining the nuances. Not only that but we don't want to transform a photograph into a photo paint that will eliminate too much authenticity of the subject and its context. "Hard" black and white photographic representations (without medium gray tonal scale) use to have a certain popularity during the 1960's for example but now people are asking for more sophisticated pictures.

Color opposition is another kind of visual contrast.
Color contrast also called complementary colors is another way to create strong separation between surfaces or textures or volumes. In a way there are more spectacular in their effect although they may become more distracting of the main subject of the picture. Color patches are always attractive especially if you are creating a specific "mood" in your picture.

The better dynamic of digital photography.
One thing that the digital era has brought to photography is its fantastic ability to render details from the different and largely dispersed picture light zones. That detail capacity has opened a new world in permitting to record and to enhance the pictorial subject/context to a level never seen before and mostly without too much destructive post-photographic manipulations. All this have allowed the photographer to register contrasty pictures with more profound representation of their subject. " The devil is in the details!"

Contrast of subjects.
By opposing different types of subjects, we are creating a contrast of ideas, of contexts, of people that will increase the single impact of them individually speaking. that will add to the analysis of the picture observers. Yes, it is essentially a cultural point of view for most of us that is differing from the various human groups or cultures, but the basic interpretation of the picture author stays as a personal afterthought regarding his/her surrounding world.

A life of contrast is that make the living so interesting, so instructive, so challenging. Why stay drab when you can get higher in every sense of the word?

© Photos Daniel M