Shadow-y faces

Sutter’s Fort, in Sacramento CA, was the center of California Gold Rush history.  Today it is a living history museum, with docents dressed in costume and taking the role of participants in that time and place.  My husband and I visited the Fort one year as part of a photography workshop taught through our local camera store.  The assignment was to practice photographing people, using the techniques we had learned about light, shadows, and telling the story of what people were doing.  What a great place to do that! 

This man was one of the docent participants, playing the role of one of the gold seekers stopping off at the Fort for provisions.  I loved his hat and the character in his face.  The problem was that the hat threw a huge shaddow on his face, intensified by the sunny day.  What to do?  I couldn’t ask him to remove his hat or tip it back to reduce the shaddows.  I finally got down low, since he was sitting, and focused the exposure reading on his face.  I cropped down with my zoom lens, hoping to even out the light between his face and hat so I wouldn’t lose too much detail in that wonderful hat. 

This workshop was years ago, and I was shooting slide film with an analog camera.  Slide film is a good teacher.  There is very little room for error.  When I reviewed the developed film, I was delighted to find I had achieved my goal.  Today, I could brighten up his face in photoshop, but I didn’t.  My purpose has always been to get the shot in the first place.