This week our focus will be on lighting and specifically our choice to use lots of it, or very little of it. Photos which feature a lot of light are called “High Key” and photos which feature very little are called “Low Key”. I’m sure most of you knew that already! Whether you’re going for lots of light or a lot less of it, you are making an artistic choice and it will affect both your subject and the way your viewer sees it. High key shots tend to be upbeat and ethereal. Low key shots usually evoke strong feelings as well- mystery, sorrow, intrigue and so much more.
As stated above high-key shots are bright with very little shadow. If you check your histogram you’ll notice the dynamic range will be heavily on the right. High-key lighting is great for removing distracting backgrounds and is often minimalistic in composition because of that. You can achieve a high-key effect in two ways. First in the way you light and expose your subject “in camera”. Secondly in post-processing by using effects and adjusting the digital file to accomplish a high-key look.
In low-key pictures the shadows are as important as the light. In this type of photograph your subject will be more “in the black” than in the “white”. Although enveloped by the darkness, highlights on just one or two specific areas will be both dramatic and create a strong mood in your picture. There are several kinds of lighting you can use to achieve this such as spot-lighting or rim lighting. Spot lighting, for example, places a strong and direct beam of light on one area of your subject; rim lighting outlines your subject with a singular line around its edges.
You can find lots of videos on Youtube which teach about high-key and low-key lighting but most of them deal with color subjects. After searching around for some time for videos which dealt specifically with black and white photos in these styles and watching a few that just followed the photographer around but didn’t really “teach” you anything, I decided to let you do your own video research this week! However there were plenty of printed and well-written articles on our topic at hand. Here are some of the best:
This week the subject matter is your choice. You can do portraits, street photography, abstract, or whatever your heart desires. The choice is yours! And so is the lighting. You can go high-key or low-key or alternate- again the choice is yours. You can also opt to accomplish the high-key or low-key look by working “in-camera” or in post-processing. This should give you a wide-range of ways to accomplish your goals.
It’s hard to believe the month is coming to a close. If you haven’t done so yet, look at your calendar view- that “flash of red” should look pretty impressive. Wait until you see it jumping out amongst a whole month of black and white! You’re coming down home stretch so enjoy the week and get ready to post your calendar view in March. It’s always fun to see how everyone’s month turned out.
Don’t forget to tag your photos FOR2020. I’ve been peeking in on your pictures- they all look great!!
@365anne You can do it on the last day of Feb. but a lot of folks wait until March 1- that way they have the whole month full of black and white shots. It's up to you.
You can also see the month's view by clicking on the number below your picture too.
@olivetreeann I finished my first FOR challenge a day early. I didn’t follow the rules exactly but had a great time doing it. Since I use a new album for each year, I put my month on Dec 31, 2019 so I could still keep my whole February for the challenge and keep March 1 for a new pic. Does that make sense? That’s what I did last year too. (All the links for my monthly challenges are in my profile.) Please add my name to your notification list.
@yogiw That's great Sandy- I'm not a stickler that everyone has to follow the rules exactly. Whatever works best for your project is fine with me! There will be one more post for Flash of Red- an invitation for everyone to post their calendars on a discussion thread. I'll be posting that tomorrow (Feb. 29 here in the US), but there's no specific time frame to do it and like everything else-it's optional. I'm glad you joined in and had a good time exploring black and white. This month went quickly but before you know it, it will be time for Flash of Red 2021!
@pandorasecho Thanks Dixie! Looks like you had a fun month.
Hi would someone mind telling me how I can copy the whole month .. all the tricks I have tried don't seem to work .. I know it would be something quite simple ..Hopefully someone can put me in the right direction .. Thanks Ann for organising this .. It has been a good challenge for me as I do like my colour .. ps I have a PC not mac..
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You can also see the month's view by clicking on the number below your picture too.
Glad to be of assistance!
Here is mine
@pandorasecho Thanks Dixie! Looks like you had a fun month.
@olivetreeann Thank you, Ann! I’ll add mine to the discussion thread tomorrow. You are correct — time DOES fly by!
I enjoyed flash of red very much.....so much I did two :)
http://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/43238/flash-of-red-february-has-come-to-an-end
It's in here Julia.