Shadows can add a lot to a photograph. They can emphasize emotions, create surreal images, and be used in a variety of ways. While strong use of shadows in color photographs tends to be mostly used in silhouettes, it can also appear in a variety of other forms in color photos as well. In my opinion though, shadows are most powerful when used in black and white photographs.
Below we present a showcase of truly outstanding photos that make strong use of shadows in a variety of ways. All images are linked to the sources where they were found. Please feel free to explore further works of photographers showcased in this post.
Further Reading on SmashingMag:
- The Beauty Of Street Photography
- 25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots
- 35 Beautiful Photos Of Natural Animals
- Smoke Photography and Smoke Art
- 10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills
45 Beautiful Examples Of Shadow Photography
Ricky Montalbano Just a neat, artistic picture of a skateboarder and his shadow.
Lara Fairie A stunning silhouette of a beautiful young lady. The light and shadows here create and excellent beauty shot.
Rosie Hardy A very creative use of shadows to help portray a powerful feeling and emotion in this picture.
Massi Miliano A combination of deep shadows, dark colors, creativity, and perfect time make for a very interesting and surreal photo.
David Herreman “View from the top of ‘Levant Terril’ at Mons in Belgium. A ‘terril’ is a hill made from mining waste. There are still a lot of them in the old mining regions like Mons, now being appreciated as green areas. I’ve used a ND1000 filter in order to have an ‘evening effect’ even if the sun was high in the sky. This is NOT a tone-mapped HDR but a digital blending of 3 exposures. The main exposure was of 30 sec.”
Fred Eerdekens
Josh Exell
Watari Goro Original picture – no Photoshop or image manipulation is used.
Sarah France
Gloredel Create use of shadows to create some abstract tears.
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