Video: Why you should embrace the shadows in your photography

Coming to us from the ever knowledgeable and inspirational Sean Tucker, this new video looks at using shadows, and more importantly, why you should embrace them in your storytelling.

When learning photography we're often told of the importance of protecting our highlights to avoid blown out areas, but even with modern sensors, it can be easy to create dark shadows that lack detail.

As Tucker explains, when he first started photography, he often found himself frustrated that his images didn't capture the entire dynamic range of what he had seen. This would lead him to think that because he hadn't captured the same detail in his shadows as he had in his highlights, he had 'somehow messed up' his photography.

His solution was to shoot HDR images, but this led to images that weren't right either, instead revealing more about his editing than his actual subject.

If you've found yourself in a similar situation, Tucker's solution is an interesting one - embrace the shadows. Just like a yin and yang have areas of both dark and light that work in harmony, so too can our images, and better still, we can use shadow deliberately to tell a story.

This is a popular technique in cinematography, and one many succesful photographers also use. And, as Tucker explains, life itself is no different. We have highlights and lowlights, and all of them help to shape us.

You can see more of Sean Tucker's videos on YouTube.