Friday, February 4, 2022

Snow Shadows and Frost Shadows

Sometimes nature presents visual situations that could easily be mistaken for something else. If you painted them, it would look like you made a mistake.


For example, here's a tree that fell across a rocky ridge. The root mass lifted up a 200 pound rock high into the air. Directly beneath is is a shadow with the same shape. But it's not a light shadow. It's a snow shadow, caused by snow falling through very still air. We're not used to seeing snow shadows. Our brains "want" to see it as a normal shadow.


This scene takes place on an ice-cold morning. The dew has frozen into hoarfrost, which coats the grass with blue-gray color. Where the warm sun shone, the frost disappeared. So the color of the shadow is not only the result of the difference of light, but also the difference of local color, which happens to change at the edge of shadow. If you painted it as it is, it would appear that you got it wrong.

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