Chiaroscuro as a Tool for Dramatic Photographs

Aggressive contrast is an approach to chiaroscuro

Hello everyone! Welcome to 2025. I hope that your photographic year is filled with personal creativity and images that make you happy to have made them.

In keeping with the idea of getting things right in camera, I want to propose an assignment for personal development using a technique first made evident in the Renaissance and the Baroque periods.

What is Chiaroscuro?

Chiaroscuro is using light and shadow to create three dimensional space in a two dimensional artform. Rather than being abstract, chiaroscuro is predominantly associated with realism, although as the artist, you are encouraged to use the approach as suits you. However, the end result in successful implementation of chiaroscuro is increased drama and emotional power in an image to highlight your primary subject(s) in a composition.

Examples for Consideration

The first approach used by artists was to enhance the realism of their images. You can see this in the work of Michelangelo and da Vinci. In a photograph, this would be similar to using dodging and burning in post processing to marginally increase contrast but without causing a sacrifice in realism.

benois madonna - leonardo da vinci

The other common approach is one of intense contrast. It tends to sacrifice some realism in favour of increased drama and emotional commotion. We see it in the works of Rembrandt through increased dimensionality and bringing the subject forward. Caravaggio used this technique extensively in his paintings, particularly his religious works to draw out emotional responses, often those darker responses such as fear. This is very much beyond what we would think of as dodging and burning, more a push of the midtones into either the darks or the lights.

Tenebrism - michelangelo de Caravaggio

Tips on Your Own Journey

While most historical works showing chiaroscuro contain humans, and a vast majority also have religious, predominantly Christian subjects, the technique is not limited to such subjects.

The food layout image that opens the article and the violin image below demonstrate that chiaroscuro is a viable approach for non-human subjects.

As chiaroscuro is wholly an exercise in light and shadow, the photographer will be best served when in full control of the light. This is not to say that this technique cannot be used with existing light, but the ability to leverage the inverse square law by bringin the source in close so the fall off of the light is accelerated is beneficial. The use of a black card or black reflector in direct opposition to the light source on the other side of the subject will also work to naturally enhance the contrast required.

As we observe the chiaroscuro technique we also note that the light is more point source than large and distributed, so a smaller source in close will be advantageous,

Causing the background to go black is another step in achieving chiaroscuro. Keeping the background away from the source can help a great deal, as we have seen in the discussion on black box photography.

We want to position our light to emphasize the shapes of the subjects, to delineate their curves and waves. If we look at the violin image, we can see that this could be improved by a subtle change in the position of the source, as its placement at time of creation does not show the elegant curves of the body carve or the ebony fingerboard. I used this image as an example of the learning process, a good attempt, but not where it needs to be.

Wrapping Up

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the value of the Zone System, but if we consider the work of Ansel Adams, a master of that tool, we will rarely find every zone represented in his prints. We will commonly find a reduction in the midtones with more emphasis in the shadows and the blacks, with a small counterpoints in the highlights and whites.

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