Light Science and Magic, 3rd Edition

9

The Extremes

The extremes are the very lightest and the very darkest groups of grays or colors in the photograph. For years they were the parts of the picture most likely to lack quality due to inherent, irremediable defects in film. Good photographers managed to get excellent pictures anyway because they paid a lot of attention to these defects and how to minimize them.

The extremes are a potential problem in any photograph, but in a white-on-white or a black-on-black image, pictures composed entirely of the extremes, little defects can turn ...