Tonal Play

A photographic print has a certain rhythm--a flow of tonality, exposure and contrast that creates a cohesive image. If you open the shadows but have burnt up highlights all that flow is lost; if you have an obvious direction of light but there is a sudden intrusion from another unexplained source then the eye will reject the scenario. I’m not talking about special effects printing here, where all bets are off, where discontinuity of values can actually aid the communication, but about a more “classic” approach to the photographic print.

In addition to paying attention to this rhythm you should also consider certain tricks of the printing trade, including edge burning, center of light and breaking up fields of like-valued detail with some discrete lightening and darkening. I’ll start with the direction of light.

If you look at a number of prints closely you might notice that there is a certain direction of light within and through the image. The story goes that the film director Erich von Stroheim always lit Marlene Dietrich brighter than any other person or part of the scene. Apparently, von Stroheim would have one lighting technician follow her throughout the scene always throwing light on her face and form. This created a glow about her that became part of her screen legend.

This doesn’t mean that your main subject should have an obvious spotlight on it, but that you should pay attention to how light is handled within the scene and how it can be exploited to add subtle emphasis to your main subject. This becomes clear in portraiture, where always having the subject’s face lit brighter than the surround both focuses the eye and creates a dimensional feeling of space and volume. It also can be applied in scenics, close-ups and abstract studies. Think where the light source is coming from, about the character of that light and how you can treat the surrounding area to add just a touch of emphasis to the subject you want to enhance and draw the viewer’s eye to in the picture.

There are numerous printing tricks that can aid this process. Edge burning, for example, is a tried and true printer’s trick for bringing the eye to the “center” of the print. This is also a subtle touch, where the edges of the print are made slightly darker than the center, or main subject in the scene.

Another trick is to create visual rhythm by carefully using burn and dodge controls in areas of like tonality. This can serve to break up what might be a monotonous block of tonal values into something more attractive to the eye and make it a source of visual enjoyment rather than a placeholder in the print. For example, say you have a scene where a field of ferns that is consistently lit sits in the foreground of a deep forest scene. Rather than have a solid block of tonal values you can burn down areas, emphasize shadows and thus elevate highlights to make the area even more visually engaging. This technique can also be used on clouds, in water and even in portraits.

Photo and text copyright George Schaub 2010. The light falling on this rock face was fairly consistent. Selective burn and dodge controls varied the "density" and brought the center of light to the near upper right axis of the frame.