My favorite painter is Leonardo Da Vinci. I will never stop getting impressed from reading his notebooks.

I would like to share with you  how this  talent could be use in our “Computerized world” and how we can use his studies of “Light and Shade” in Photography.

Leonardo Da Vinci: Light is the expeller of darkness. Shadow is the suppression of light. Primary shadow is that side  of a body on which the light does not fall. 

In proportion as the luminous body is nearer to the shaded body, it throws out more light if the luminous body is greater than the dark body.
The shadow will never show itself of uniform density in the place of incidence, unless this place be equidistant from the luminous body. This is proved by the seventh which says: that shadow will show itself lighter or darker which is against a darker or lighter background.
That part of an opaque body will be more in shadow or more in light which is nearer to the dark body which shades it, or to the luminous body which gives it light.

The Notebook of Leonardo Da Vinci by Edward MacCurdy

Photography:
Of course it is an individual choice of   every photographer to use post production correction of photo or just use photograph with the minor changes. My personal preference is always use post production correction…it is helps to show the photograph with the best side and bring a personal touch to every photograph that I am working with.

 We have the photograph that not was applied the light and shadow correction with Dodge and Burn Tools in Photoshop CS5 (see  First Image)

1:
Leonardo Da Vinci in Photography: Light is the expeller of darkness. Shadow is the suppression of light. Primary shadow is that side  of a body on which the light does not fall

Photoshop CS5:

 

2:
Throws out more light if the luminous body is greater than the dark body.

Photoshop CS5:

 

3:
The shadow will never show itself of uniform density in the place of incidence, unless this place be equidistant from the luminous body

Photoshop CS5:

 

4:
That part of an opaque body will be more in shadow or more in light which is nearer to the dark body which shades it

Photoshop CS5: 

 

From  century to century our world became a high technology world and it  changed our life style and even our art preferences,  but Leonardo Da Vinci’s talent stayed with us forever and helped us to bring our talent to the next level.

Photography has the same principal as  painting. Light and Shadow in photography have the same quality as in painting. Try it and you will love it!