In this video, you'll see why what you're being taught will produce a uniformity of exposure, but where nothing in your picture will ever stand out. It's why so many images fail to contain any "narrative"; where the viewer is left to go figure for himself. Whereas by adjusting your exposure curves (which can be done in-camera) your electronic viewfinder will allow you to see the exciting possibilities contained in what is an otherwise quite mundane image.
Watch "CHIAROSCURO — The Dynamic Range Mistake" on YouTube
Chiaroscuro in combination with a very wide format is what I use, almost as a signature, in most of my professional photography. I set up my camera so that the electronic viewfinder shows me this affect, and captures a jpeg of the same. While my master image is the RAW file that I'll later turn into a more finely tuned Chiaroscuro effect in post processing.
Here, below, is an image outtake from the video, showing how a very ordinary photograph of someone in a bar can be transformed. There is no longer any confusion about where the eye is drawn, and the relatively less important background or contextual information is underplayed. It's another case of where applying "the rules" will give you a technically well exposed yet very average image versus breaking those so-called "rules" will transform that image into something exceptional.
Enjoy,
Rick Bear
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- Following the exposure "rules"
- 20200503_135138.jpg (142.61 KiB) Viewed 2197 times
- Chiaroscuro rendering breaks those "rules"
- 20200503_135203.jpg (82.01 KiB) Viewed 2196 times
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Thank you!