Right now I've looked at what High/Low Key photography is its time to have a crack at it myself. For this project I'm asked to produce two distinctly high key images and then two distinctly low key all in Black and White, the subject matter is completely up to me which is one of the reason I picked this project in the first place, the second being it gave me the chance to play around with the black and white medium. On first glance I imagine for me the Low key images will be the easier of the two to produce because I like the more moody more dramatic images that you find in this style, I could be wrong but it'll be a good learning process finding out.
High Key Photos.
Tech. Details-
F-stops- f/36
Exposure- 1 sec
ISO- 800
Expo. Bias- 0 steps
Focal Length- 160mm
For my first high key image I tried looking for a subject that was bright in colour or as it turned out at least the same light shade throughout so that as a black and white image the light areas would be converted to white. With my 7d I found that by using the live view function I could work much better because I could see before I'd even taken the shot whether it was going to work or not with the camera set to monochrome. What I've tried to do is us a bit of an abstract composition to make the subject a little more interesting because if i'd shot the whole of the face it just didn't work for me. One thing I like about shooting a photo in high key is the affect it has on the subject, in this case it makes the stone face appear much softer because of the lack of any shadows to enhance the texture.
Tech. Details-
F-stops- f/4
Exposure- 1/100secs
ISO- 100
Expo. Bias- 0 steps
Focal Length- 25mm
This is a close up of a Giant Dandelion head but by capturing it in High key I think it looks more spidery and almost web like. Again as with the face above the effect softens the photo making it appear much less sharper but at the same time the there's enough contrast between the seed heads to produce a balanced structured shot. Also again you could say it's a little abstract but I think this is one of the reasons it works because you're not quiet sure what you're looking at.
This half of the project as I expected I found to be the most difficult to complete, what I found difficult was that it's hard to produce landscapes in this way because I kept ending up with very over exposed images that lack any real quality. To get round this problem as you can see I went more macro because this mean't I was looking at things on a much smaller scale, a smaller field of view mean't less light and shadow to worry about and I felt I had more control over the exposure because of this alteration.
Low Key Photos.
Tech. Details.
None Available
This shot I captured while at an evening match at Old Trafford on my phone but I really liked the results and though it fit nicely into this section. With the way the ground was lit it was producing strong shadows in the stands while lighting a small area of the pick making a nice focus point with the players warming up. Add to this the blurred motion of the people and some players plus a good tonal range and I think I got a nice piece of work here in the low key range. It isn't as sharp and crisp as I have liked but this is more dew to the camera then to the lighting of the scene, the main thing is the thought it has the more dramatic feel that I'm looking for with these two images.
Tech. Details-
F-stops- f/14
Exposure- 1/500sec
ISO- 800
Expo. Bias- 0 steps
Focal Length- 22mm
For my final image I gone all out to create as powerful a photo I could possibly by choosing a subject that equally reflects this. This is the Shot At Dawn memorial to all the men that were shot by firing squad for refusing to fight during the First World War, many of these men are now thought to have been suffering from shell shock or post traumatic stress or even a combination of the two so it's a very powerful memorial in the first place. By using the light provided and then playing around a little within Photoshop with the Levels and Brightness/Contrast controls the end results are what you see above, I'm really pleased with the contrast between the statue and the background although the one problem I do have is whether there's maybe a little too many light tones present for it to be a true Low key image. I did attempt to less these tones but found that the shadows took over to much a wrecked the feel of the shot completely so in the end I've gone for a half way solution. I like it and think it's the best photo in the section but it's by no mean's perfect.
All in all I've really enjoyed this project its stretch my understanding and changed the way I might look at a subject moving forward when I work again in black and white. I think I've definitely found a love in black and white photography that I did know I had and it has changed my view that I like maybe to do my whole major project in this fashion. Clearly I still have a lot of room for improvement probably more in the High Key range but this gives me somewhere to work as I plan where to go next with my work.
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