What is High Key & Low Key Photography.

   High Key and Low Key Photography isn't something that I'd ever come across before so i think its probabley best to do so research first to get a clearer idea of what i'm actually looking at producing.
   In the most basic terms High Key photos are very bright with mostly white tones and little shadow whilst Low Key is the complete opposite in that they are dark with very little lighting with strong black tones and lots of shadow. Tone wise High Key images can be defined as giving the feeling of  being fresh, clean, smooth while Low Key tend to feel sinister, mysterious, edgy.

Above is a typical example of the type of high key images that you see, strong light creating little shadow but the eyes become the focus of the shot because of the contrast with the rest of the tones.

And here you see a typical low key image, lots of shadow and dark tones very moody compared to the high key shot.

I've tried looking at other peoples work to help my understanding of this form of photography and what i found was that i ended up being drawn to the work of Ansel Adams in particular, in his work he had such control over the tonal range that he produced breath taking imagery that has truly stood up to the test of time. He seems to have produced the majority of his work in the Low key and from the two examples below you can see how he's used the lighting and the shadow produced (more in the second image then the first) to give the scenes really texture and mood which is something I'll be aiming for with my own images. What I like about his work is the effort and time that he must have put in to produce them, none of his subject in the the American mid west were that accessable during the period he work (there probabley not that easy to reach in some repects even today) but he manage to get his equipment in position and then waited until he had the lighting just right before shooting to get the image he was after. I can't begin to imagine the time he must have spent in some place's just waiting for the conditions to be right.

The one advantage I do have over people like Adams is that while he created his images using a collection of different developing techniques I have Photoshop to help me create the tonal differences I'm after. Yes the majority of work is still done with the camera and the exposure settings I can now play around with it much more using the software available. For example i can use the levels control, brightness and contrast even the hue/saturation controls to effect my final work and failing these I could even go so far as adding digital filters.

This is one of those projects that I'm really glad I pick to attempt, to begin with it seems quiet straight forward but when you dig around and get a better understanding of the actual process involved you see there's alot more to it. You can't just shoot a scene in black and white and over or under exposing it, you have to have an understanding of the lighting and know how to use it to get what you want, even in a studio situation this is true but outdoors its even more vital. I can't wait to see what I come up with.

(photos taken from Wikimedia Commons)