Photography 101 - How to Understand and Change Contrast

There are many individual elements of what makes an image appear a certain way. Exposure, film speed, camera quality, framing and printing method all have an impact on the quality of your final print. Contrast is one of the most important and easily manipulated elements of a photograph and, when used properly, can take your images to a whole new level.

Contrast is simply the difference between the darks and light in your photographs. In terms of black and white photography, high contrast images have very bright whites and incredibly dark blacks with little room in between, while low contrast images will have more grey and appear less distinct. In color photos, contrast is used to describe the color intensity and how the colors stand out in relation to each other. While there's no "perfect" level of contrast, a good rule of thumb is to try and create images that have pure black, pure white, and every shade in between. This is not as easy as it sounds!

Different Degrees of Contrast

As a photographer, you'll have a preference on the amount of contrast that you like in your prints. Some photographers like high contrast while others like low, so it really depends upon what works for you. As long as your images convey the message you want to pass on, no one is going to call you on the phone and tell you to change your photographs around.

If you want to see some examples of excellent normal contrast just look at the work by Ansel Adams. His landscape photographs in black and white cover every base possible in terms of greys, blacks, and whites, and are quite powerful because of it. For an example of high-contrast, recent films such as Sin City and The Spirit used high-contrast imagery to augment their story.

Manipulating Contrast

There are several ways you can adjust the contrast of your photograph. Different types of film or digital camera settings will give your pictures different amounts of contrast. For example, slide film has a high contrast ratio compared to regular film. You can also increase the time your film develops or "push" your film so that your images will have more contrast. Be careful that you don't over-develop your film because, unlike prints, it can't be redone once you develop it.

In the darkroom, you can apply a filter to your enlarger to change the contrast of your images. A #1 filter wil be a slight contrast increase, whereas a #4 filter will significantly increase the contrast level in your print. If you're using a digital camera, most photo editing software has a built in contrast option that will let you mimic the changes you could make in the darkroom. Contrast is unlimited in what you can do with it so play around and take it to the limit and see what happens.

Contrast can control the focal point of an image, as in where your viewers look. It can help better define important parts of a picture and creates a better final product when it is present in the right levels. Use the "pure black, pure white" rule in every photograph and you'll see a huge improvement in the images you produce. Once you understand what degree of contrast works in your photos, you'll start to see how you can use contrast in the real world to shoot even better pictures. As always, the best way to get better is to keep practicing!