The Secret Ingredient ?

[Rnld]

This is my first post on the forum, and I apologize if its not in the right place.

I have this question in my mind for quite some time now. I see a lot of documentary and art photography that is shot outside in full sunlight, yet the contrast between the shade and sunlit areas is very subtle.
Subtle enough to not make it HDR photography, and I am almost sure that it isn't.
Wat happens to these photo's to make them look like this? Is it analog low-contrast film? exposure? post-processing? i just don't know.
This all sounds a big vague so I'm going to use some examples

Photo's with that low contrast vibe going on:

(by Maritta Bullman)

This photo above for example, has een shot in clear sunlight judging by the light and shadows. Still somehow there's hardly any dark, contrasty, areas.
But if you went to this place, and took the exact same foto, it would look so much different.

Lars van den Brink (not shot in clear sunlight, but still has that feel to it)

Niels Stomps

Judging by the hard shadow this soldier is standing in the sunlight, but still this photo has this typical low contrast feel to it.


I hope somebody understands my blabbering.. I will be searching for some more examples in the meanwhile

 

[KmH]

As an example, Nikon cameras have an adjustable (crude) feature called D-Lighting that edits the image in the camera - reducing the contrast between light and shadow.

 

[divided]

Looks like a decrease in saturation has something to do with it.

 

[pharmakon]

Several ways to do it in post processing. Using the "fill light" slider in lightroom, and the contrast slider, using curves, or even the 'highlights/shadows' function in photoshop are the first few ways that come to mind.