varjost

Varjost is a Finnish term that refers to the creation or depiction of shadows and shade. It comes from varjo, shadow, and is used in both concrete and abstract senses across disciplines such as visual arts, photography, film, and digital rendering.

In traditional drawing and painting, varjostus (the act of shading) is the technique of modeling form by light and shadow. Artists use changes in value, edge quality, and contrast to convey volume and depth. Historical practices include chiaroscuro and sfumato as exemplars of varjost in illumination.

In photography and cinematography, varjostus describes how light interacts with subjects and environments. The placement of lights creates hard or soft shadows that shape perception of texture and space, facilitating mood and focus.

In computer graphics, varjostus denotes shading techniques that determine how surfaces respond to illumination. Early methods include flat shading and Gouraud shading; later approaches, such as Phong shading and physically based rendering, simulate realistic shadows, including soft shadows produced by area lights and shadow maps.

Linguistically, varjost is connected to varjostaa, meaning to shadow or obscure, and can be used both in literal sense (a shadow cast by an object) and metaphorical sense (to overshadow someone).