If you take my path, you'll be influenced by film. I'm working with images from Noir films, mostly from the 40s, in the back of my mind. Stuff like "Double Indemnity", "The Big Sleep", "The Maltese Falcon", the modern "The Man Who Wasn't There", and the non-Noir, "Citizen Kane". Bright highlights and dark shadows prevail. More modern, color examples would be "Memento", "Vanilla Sky", "Fight Club", anything by the Coen Bros., and the aesthetically superb, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". All of these and many more play with either light, shadow, or color or all three.