Why contrast is so important!

Hairy being @Kennemerduinen

There is a Brazilian singer which I love! He made this song that talks about contrasts in life (english pseudo-speakers get a really bad translation here). Lulu, I love you!

He says: "There would be no sound if not for the silence, there would be no light if not for the darkness..."

I think this is one of the greatest photography lessons EVER! And for me the lesson is clear: contrast is  part of my style.

Most of the amateur cameras have a setting on the menu (on Canon it's called Picture Style) where you can tweak contrast. It has some settings that are baptized with names like "faithful" or "neutral" or you can set each individual slider to what you identify being your style. There you can increase the contrast of your pictures so they get a bit better out of the camera (or you can decrease contrast, if you are a fan of a more smooth tone transition).

Particularly, I don't use those settings. I shoot in RAW (more about this on another post) and I change the contrast later, on a bigger screen. See below some examples of pictures that have a neutral style when out of the camera and afterwards, after increasing a bit the contrast of them (without changing any other setting).

Cows at different contrast levels from the original out-of-camera less contrast (left) to more contrast (right)

When we start to play with black and white, contrast says so much in a picture that you need to choose carefully what to highlight (han han... to come on another post). Contrast on pictures, as also on our lives, gives that little salt & pepper we need to everything.

Contrast work during B&W conversion

Men values peace in times of war, 

And the light in times of darkness,

And contrast on dull pictures!