Good photography depends far more on skill than it does gear. Good cameras don’t guarantee great photographs, and several professional photographers have been known to shoot with disposable cameras. The secret to great photography is rooted in having a solid understanding of the technical elements of photographs and how they interact with one another. Composition, contrast, color balance, depth of field – all of these things combined are what make a photograph unique, and without an understanding of each you may find that your work suffers.

So, here is a thorough breakdown of one of these important elements: Contrast.

Contrast?

Contrast is the range of difference between different tones in a photograph. In black and white photography, contrast describes the difference between the darkest and lightest tones, but also defines the grayscale. When it comes to color photography, contrast refers to how sharply the colors stand out from each other.

How to Control Contrast?

If you want to control the contrast in your photograph there are several ways you can do it. The easiest way is to import your pictures into a digital photo editor and use the contrast button to adjust the level of contrast until you get the look you want. In the darkroom, you can use filters in your enlarger to increase the level of contrast in any image – as the number of the filter increases, so does the contrast. Controlling contrast is a bit trickier in-camera, and depends heavily on lighting conditions, lens filters, and your exposure time. It's usually a good idea to shoot with a little caution and opt for less contrast than more since you can always increase the contrast later without losing quality.

A Good Quality of Contrast

Although there is much debate on what is "just right" in terms of contrast, you want your tones to go from dark to very bright with every color in between shown on the photograph. This is best understood in black and white photographs, as you would want a pure white, a pure black, and every shade of grey possible represented in every photograph. A good level of contrast is when your colors "pop" or your subjects look clearly defined.

Adjusting Your Contrast

One of the classic tricks in the photographer's toolbox is dodging and burning photographs. This is a method for adjusting the contrast of individual parts of an image, as opposed to the entire thing. This helps in modifying the composition (like darkening the background) and highlighting the subject (like lightening their eyes) or improving the overall appearance of the image.

In the darkroom, photographers will often create complex stencils that are placed on top of their blank photo paper. These stencils allow certain parts of the photograph to be exposed for different periods of time than others, which in turn gives the photographer greater control over the contrast of the entire image. Fortunately, this process has been greatly simplified in most photo editing suites and areas of interest can be dodged or burned with a mouse pointer.

Photos that are "dodged" have areas where they're exposed to light for shorter periods of time, or when it comes to digital editing they're areas that are lightened and lose contrast. Areas that are “burned” will gain contrast and the grain will grow darker.

It can be challenging to control the contrast of your picture but with a little practice of dodging and burning it will soon become a whole lot easier. Good contrast contributes to the narrative of your photograph and helps to make the important things stand out while the less important things fade away. When it comes to taking pictures, try to picture what the contrast will look like before you shoot and then go crazy when it comes to making changes in the darkroom or on the computer. As with everything, practice makes perfect!