Eighty years ago the Great Yellow Emperor (Kodak) produced a small leaflett printed in 2 point font and reproduced in half a dozen languages. It was included in every single cardboard packet of Kodak film and sold hundreds maybe thousands of millions of times.
The sermon on the mount instructed photographers to shoot between 10am and 3pm and always have the sun coming over their left shoulder. Generation after generation of photographers followed the anthem from the Great Yellow Emperor. So we all learned to have the light falling on the front of the subject. So did I. For a while.
Nobody taught us that when light falls across a person, a pumpkin or a plateau the image actually looks better. A lot better. Why? Because the light produces light and shade, light and shade, light and shade. The italians call it chiaroscuro lighting. This produces an amazing difference in the image - making it look more three-dimensional, more contrasty and sharper. The Italians are famous for one more thing besides pasta and red Ferraris.
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