Shape, Form, Tone and Texture for good Photography

April 28, 2021  •  Leave a Comment

Essentials of Photography - Shape, Form, Tone and Texture 

The three-dimensionality of the subject in Photography is revealed by the mid-tones, the most important tone as compared to the light and dark tones. The subtle gradation of shades in between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks gives body and substance to all photographs and plays a key role if the photograph is flat.

These tones are the photographic equivalent of the shading in an artist’s drawing. It's this shading - the mid tones that help distinguish and define the contours of a face, or a cube. These help us visually distinguish between a cone from a sphere. To accentuate form, you want the changes in tone between areas of dark and light to be as gradual as possible. This is primarily achieved using lighting. A good understanding of the direction and quality of Light can help a photographer depict a form with the help of tones.

The Direction of light helps add the tones in the subject and thus reveal the form. If a subject is lit from the side, rather than 
from another lighting angle, you get a higher proportion of areas that are half in shadow and half in the light. This then provides the crucial mid tones that reveal the contours of a subject. Varying the angle of the lighting in relation to the subject, either by moving the light itself or by changing the viewpoint, will change the mid-tones, and the amount of form that is revealed. The lighting must not be too direct, because this can create intense highlights that tend to drown out the subtlety of the shading. Full frame cameras and medium format cameras are able to handle such situations much better as compared to cameras with smaller sensors. The Lighting should not be too soft or frontal as the illumination is too even in such cases. The best light for accentuating form is halfway between the two. The partially diffused light you get by using a soft box over a Bare studio light, or from sunlight that is softened by clouds, is ideal.

Outdoors, the darker side of a side-lit subject will almost always be lit indirectly—from sunlight reflected from surrounding buildings, the ground, or even from the sky. This natural fill-in helps to soften the shadows, and create a better range of mid-tones to suggest the three-dimensional form of the subject. Alternatively in the studio or outdoors you can use a reflector or a wider light source it self which warps around the subject besides being directional. without a reflector or a fill in, there is too much of a contrast and the shadows can end up being completely black and featureless.

The reflector or the fill light needs to be strategically placed to bounce light back from the main light source into the deepest shadows on the subject. Although specially made reflectors can be bought, a large sheet of white cardboard, paper, Thermocol or a simple white bed sheet, can be just as effective.

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The backlighting creates middle tones as well, highlighting the form. If the lighting was shifted further back, the subject would have turned more towards being a silhouette, emphasising more on shape than the form. While shooting artistic nudes, a good understanding of lighting to reveal shape and form with the help of tones, adds that artistic touch to the nudes, which may not look very appealing otherwise. Another thing that you may notice is that the skin retouching in these nudes is almost not there. Besides revealing form, directional lighting reveals texture as well. Its the feeling of skin texture that makes a nude more artistic and abstract.   

 

nudesnudesnudes While this photograph does convey the sense of shape, being in shadows it does not really reveal the from. Depending upon what you are trying to achieve, it's fine sometimes to give more importance to shape as compared to the form. nudesnudesnudes Another silhouette conveys shape but does not convey the feeling of form or texture.


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The characteristics of Shape and form are extremely important and significant in Food Photography. Its because of the lighting that one gets to know the shape and form of the food. texture is also important as it lets us know how the food feels like. While certain elements in the same shot are smooth others are with quite a rough surface. Form conveys that feeling of three dimensionality.

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Product Photography is another area where these key areas need to be understood and highlighted. Its because of the form that the volume of the bottle or a can can be understood by the consumer. besides highlighting the form, showing texture is very important in case of products like shoes.

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Form and shape can be deceptive at times. This photograph of the outside of the rusted pipe has bee shot through the hollow of another rusted pipe. so you see the inside of one pipe in the foreground and outside of another pipe in the background.

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While shooting intricate lingerie, its significant to show both form and texture. Its the fine detailing that's an integral part of lingerie.


Do check out the Mentorship programs and Photography courses offered by Munish Khanna at Delhi for more in depth information on various aspects of Photography.


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