Beauty of Light 4: Chiaroscuro

I have a lifelong admiration for the art of painters such as Rembrandt and Caravaggio who used the Chiaroscuro technique in their work. The term chiaroscuro comes from the Italian words chiaro, meaning light, and oscuro, which means dark. These artists used the chiaroscuro method of painting shadows and a single light source, to make photorealistic paintings with character and depth.

Used in photography, the deep black shadows introduce mood and enhance the subject matter with a solidity of form and a better three dimensional representation.

The black shadows can be used as a frame to guide a viewer’s eye towards the important subject matter of the image. Alternatively, if the subject is a shadowed silhouette, narrative can be introduced via body language or expression of movement.