Intro to Contrast Part 2

There are two steps you can take when thinking about contrast that will really help you understand what you're seeing. The first step is to judge the distance in values, or how far apart your lightest value is from your darkest value. The second step is to judge the rate at which the values shift from lightest value to darkest value.

Step 1
Pure black to pure white is a very large shift, and so would create a higher level of contrast. On the other end of the scale, a dark gray to a light gray would be a very low level of contrast. This is the example I showed in my  Intro to Contrast Part 1  post, where the first image had a very small value shift from it's darkest dark to it's lightest light. More contrast requires deeper blacks and brighter whites.
Step 2
The more sudden the shift happens between a lighter value and a darker value, the more contrast the eye will notice and be attracted to. If you put a deep black right up against a bright white, there is a huge contrast between the two, because of their opposite levels of value and their proximity to each other. If instead you put a smooth gradient that passes from your deep black to your bright white you will still have contrast from the deep black and the bright white, however it will be less jarring as there is very little shift between each individual value. The more shift between each value level, the more contrast will be apparent. It will also create a level of sharpness, which I will talk about in a future post.