Shadow Geometry
Tracing light and shadows with low exposure photography
At 4 pm on a Friday afternoon, I was getting tired at my desk and needed to stretch my legs. As I started to walk around my home I saw the sunlight peek through the blinds in my bedroom. The light through the edges of the window drew a clear rectangle, against the dim room.
I immediately went looking for my camera, set the exposure to -5ev, and shot the opening picture of this series — ‘The Quadrilateral’.
In fact, I shot all photographs in this essay with my Canon Eos T6i with low exposure values. The low exposure allowed me to grab high-contrast photos with the light plotting stark geometries against the shadows of otherwise dimly lit rooms.
Quadrilaterals
The opening shot of this series was from my bedroom. Now, obviously, the window is shaped like one big rectangle. But the more I looked at the picture, the more it looked like an ill-drawn trapezoid — with a white chalk on a blackboard (anyone remember those?).
These low-exposure shots created brilliant contrasts between the light and everything else (I am new to shooting in manual mode, so I am still in awe!). The shades of blacks seem so deep, and the light is so well defined that it is easy to forget that these are just pictures of windows and blinds.
The picture below is of a different window — if I hadn’t told you that, you would have just assumed that it was the same window. My vantage point made it seem like the light drew only ‘Three Sides’ of a quadrilateral.
Line or Arc?
Once I got those shots, I wondered: what other geometry could I capture? I went in search of a straight line, and shot a close-up of one edge of my living room window:
At first, I thought I had it! But upon closer inspection, I noted a subtle bend to this ‘line’ of light — likely because of a curvature in the blind itself, or because I was too close to the shot (?). But arcs are just as cool!
I shot this at -5ev as well. And again, I was blown away by the contrast.
An Angle
It is fair to say that by this point, I was clicking anything that reminded me of high-school geometry. This next shot — which I call ‘The Obtuse Angle’ — is a perfect example of how I was seeing geometry just about anywhere. The light was peeking through my bedroom door and hitting the carpet and then diffusing away because there was a mirror on the right edge of this shot.
The stream of light and its diffusion made for an excellent lesson in how light travels and reflects or diffuses. Physics should be taught like this — it would be far more interesting. I shot this at -5ev as well, creating those deep shades of black.
Parallel Lines
Next, I opened the blinds a bit. I did something similar a few weeks ago when capturing a sunset:
But the sun was not setting this time — it was only 4:30 pm:
These shots were educational. When I opened the blinds just a tiny bit, the light flooded into my living room. But because I pointed the camera directly at the incoming light, I was able to leave the exposure at -2ev for ‘Parallel Lines’, and -1ev for ‘Parallel Lines, Again’, and still capture the light in clear contrast from its surroundings.
Concentric Circles
Finally, I was in search of a circle. We have these cylindrical lamps, covered with what seems like crumpled paper. So, I pointed my camera directly above one such lamp and clicked a few shots at -4ev.
To be honest, I was caught off-guard. Then dance of light and shadow — especially against that crumpled paper — was mesmerizing. I am pretty speechless, so I will leave it at that.
This last picture of the bulb in the lamp deserved an honorary mention. My wife insisted on it, and I tend to not disagree with her when she is right. Low exposure photography certainly captures some dramatic shots, and it has my interest.
This won’t be the last of my experiments.
