Shoreditch, East London | Canon EOS R : RF 35mm f1.8 IS : f/13.0 : 1/250s : ISO 400
I find shadows intriguing. Many times, they are more interesting than the subjects that create them. Particularly when the light is low, distorted shadows can lose their recognisability and take on multiple meanings. In Shoreditch where you gifted as a photographer with both large expanses of painted walls painted with graphics, these can be used as very effective backdrops for shadows facilitating a raft of interesting juxtapositions.
This shot was taken in one of Shoreditch’s main walkways. The background wall was a dark grey and the light was at a reasonably oblique angle. I was in the street shooting the graphics and graffiti when I noticed the figure standing at the edge of the frame. It was not the subject himself that caught my eye, but the shadow he cast at the edge of the image frame. I spent a few minutes shooting a number of different options, trying to find a perspective where the subject’s shadow but not the subject himself was visible in the shot. I also tried to find a position where the shadow could sit at the very edge of the frame, allowing the perception of negative space apart to become more exaggerated.
Because of the large degree of contrast between the dark wall, the shadow and the white typography, very little post-processing of the RAW file was required in order to create the final image as you can see from the RAW image shown here. In fact, the RAW file was almost monochromatic.
