Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

The Fill Light: To Lighten Shadows

Fill light adds light to shadows. When you look at a contrasty scene, your eye auto-

matically adjusts for differences in brightness. As you glance from a bright to a

shadowed area, the eye’s pupil opens up to admit more light. Film, however, cannot

make such adjustments—it can record detail and texture in brightly lit areas or in

deeply shadowed ones, but generally not in both at the same time. If important

shadow areas are much darker than lit areas—for example, the shaded side of a per-

son’s face in a portrait—consider whether adding fill light will improve your picture.

Fill light is most useful with color transparencies. As little as two stops difference

between lit and shaded areas can make shadows very dark, even black.

Fill light can also be useful with black-and-white materials. In a black-and-white

portrait of a partly shaded subject, shadows that are two stops darker than the lit

side of the face will be dark but still show full texture and detail. But when shadows

become three or more stops darker than lit areas, fill light becomes useful. You can

fix these problems by adding fill light, rather than try to lighten a too-dark shadow

prior to printing.

CHAPTER 21 LIGHTING 319

FIGURE 21.15
Back lighting.