Shadows Example

4.  The dark side. Shadows and Black   (only the bold links work here)                            

As I said at the beginning - Have you ever wondered why movie producers never get the cops to switch that damn light on when they go into a suspect’s house, and they use a torch instead? 

Psychology of Imagery - It’s because they know that our instincts regarding basic safety (Tier 2 of the Maslow Needs Pyramid) make us look into the shadows looking for danger, what can eat us, the unknown. That instinct and others are still with us from our “Neanderthal” days.

You may recognize that when you enter a dark area that you look more intently. Now that sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But it’s more than just not seeing clearly, it brings up our concerns for safety, just like perhaps when we were kids when our basic instincts are more compelling, we may have been scared of the dark without really knowing why? Well, now you know. It’s a very good way of introducing shadow areas into our images to get viewers to look there, look around, look back there and repeat. Also notice the bright lamp that probably initially caught your attention?  Highlights is the next article.

There’s a slight difference between shadows and pure black. (we’ll talk about black and highlights under “Contrast”) Our eyes go to shadows initially due to that safety instinct, but as soon as we realize there is no detail/danger, we quickly move on.  But we always go back there just in case. Test it with the image above, where do you investigate more, shadows or the light areas?  Do you go back to the dark just to make sure?

However, shadows are at different levels of darkness, so we want to look more carefully to ensure we’re safe. So that means shadows attract viewers longer, particularly compared to an image that has no shadows and is fairly level in tones.  Notice how the cops with the torch are actually using the beams as "leading lines"? Pretty smart don't you reckon? And now you won't be able to un-see these elements and techniques in movies.

There are 36 such elements/techniques in this section.