Contrast in Digital Photography can be define as the distribution of gradations of light and dark which is both can be controlled and sometimes out of control. Out of control of contrast in Digital Photography is due to the artifacts added in Digital Photography specifically, which includes noise. Contrast in Digital Photography can be controlled as we can see the result of what is we are going to click, through the LCD screen in much bigger size and obviously we can post process the digital photography in software like Adobe Photoshop to increase or decrease the contrast.
Contrast in Digital Photography : Basics
With any photograph, be in color or black and white or digital or film; contrast is characterized by its non-presence by making the picture dull. Among the other things, from a certain degree of contrast is a need for a perfect photograph. Contrast must be understood as the distribution of gradations in light and dark shades, in the sense that :
- The combination of harsh tones very clear to very dark tones with a low level of mid-range is defined high contrast, while, on the contrary
- The combination of soft mid-tones slightly with a limited presence of extreme tones is called low contrast.
Contrast in Digital Photography
Let us show the curves in Adobe Photoshop. Let us consider this Photograph, which is from celoe.deviantart.com :
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Please note that, this image is already post processed, in the right contrast. So we can demonstrate the higher and lower level of contrast on it.
A photograph, in order to be good, must necessarily have a distribution of tones, that is a perfectly balanced presence of all the areas of gray. In fact, this canonical norm may not always be valid. The distribution of gray areas necessarily depends on the subject that was photographed and the ambient light conditions.
So there may be photographs in which the distribution favors the highs or lows or without being able to acknowledge a fault. We respectively cases of prevalence of high tones with almost no mid tones and “prevalence of low tones with almost no mid tones :
