The low contrast of a frame filled with mostly black has been shot many times in the past by studio and location photographers worldwide. In the black of night or a darkened room, and with flashlight in hand, you can create sudden surprise or shock by shining the lone beam of light on something that was once lost. On a recent trip to Doha, Qatar, I was following a group of female students as we walked toward a mosque. One of the women was being quite animated with her hands as she spoke, and it was then that I saw all the black surrounding her hand. I asked the women to simply stand facing the mosque and I asked the woman on the right to raise her left hand, palm up. After setting my exposure off the blue sky, I fired off about a dozen frames, changing my composition slightly each time. All the black from the women’s burkas creates, of course, a “darkened room,” allowing the lone henna-painted hand to look as though it were being lit by a flashlight, when in fact it is only being lit by the sun overhead. The small hand is the “surprise,” and against all this extreme contrast, it gets the greatest attention.

Nikon D3X with Nikkor 16–35mm lens at 16mm, f/16 for 1/125 sec., ISO 100