Lighting is one of the most important elements in photography and videography. The way you light a subject can dramatically affect the mood, emotion, and message of your image. Using high key and low key lighting is an effective way to convey different ideas and aesthetics through creative lighting techniques.
High key lighting refers to a visual style where the scene has a light, bright, airy appearance with minimal shadows. It evokes positivity, innocence, cleanliness, and openness. Low key lighting has strong contrast between light and shadow areas. It creates a dark, moody, mysterious atmosphere and can convey ideas like drama, solemnity, and grittiness.
Understanding how to properly employ high key vs low key lighting allows you to control the feel of your photos and videos. In this article, we’ll explain what high key and low key mean, when to use each style, and how to set up high key and low key lighting for stunning visuals.
What is High Key Lighting?
High key lighting is a technique that uses an abundance of light to create an image with reduced contrast and shadows. The scene has a bright, low-contrast look where the shadows are filled in and details are visible in both the highlights and shadows.
Some characteristics of high key lighting include:
– The scene has an overall bright, light tone with white or light-colored backgrounds.
– Shadows are minimized and filled in, leaving few visible shadows.
– Details are retained in the highlights and shadows rather than blown-out or crushed blacks.
– The subject is properly exposed without looking too bright or overexposed.
– There is low contrast between the bright and dark areas.
– Whiter areas of the image are close to being overexposed but retain details.
– The lighting ratio between the key light and other lights is low, meaning the brightness levels are more even.
The high key look lends itself well to certain types of photography subjects and locations:
– Portraits of babies, children, and light-colored clothing/products.
– Weddings, engagement photos, maternity photos.
– Snowy scenes, beaches, bright rooms, and other light environments.
– Product advertising showing off a clean, fresh aesthetic.
– Cheerful, lively concepts and emotions like joy, fun, innocence.
Overall, high key lighting imparts an open, lightweight, positive feeling to the viewer. The abundance of illumination gives off an airy vibe and minimal shadows create a cleaner image.
What is Low Key Lighting?
Low key lighting takes the opposite approach by using strong contrast between intense shadows and bright highlights. This type of lighting setup results in a darker overall image with blacks, shadows, and contrast taking center stage.
Characteristics of low key lighting:
– The scene has an overall dark tone with black or dark-colored backgrounds.
– Heavy shadows fill much of the frame.
– Details are lost in the shadows but retained in the brightly lit subject and highlights.
– The subject stands out brightly against the dark background.
– There is strong contrast between the shadows and highlights.
– Black areas approach being totally black with crushed shadows.
– The lighting ratio between the key and other lights is high, increasing contrast.
Low key lighting suits these types of scenes and subjects:
– Portraits with darker locations, clothing, or skin tones.
– Night photography, silhouettes, Smoke photography.
– Film noir, crime, thrillers, dramas.
– Black or complex products like watches, leather goods, liquor.
– Melancholy, solemn, edgy moods and emotions.
The abundance of shadows creates mystery and draws the viewer’s eye to the illuminated subject. It sets an intimate, sensual, or serious tone depending on the context. When used effectively, low key lighting can add visual intensity and dramatic flair.
When to Use High Key vs Low Key Lighting
So when should you employ high key compared to low key lighting? Here are some general guidelines:
Use high key lighting for:
– Bright, clean, airy aesthetics.
– Portraits with light or white clothing/backgrounds.
– Happier concepts like weddings, children, cheerfulness.
– Products with a fresh, minimalist look.
Use low key lighting for:
– Dark, mysterious, intimate aesthetics.
– Portraits with black clothing/backgrounds.
– Dramatic concepts like crime, horror, edginess.
– Products with sophistication and elegance.
Of course, both techniques can be mixed and adapted across many contexts. But in general, follow these principles when deciding between high key vs low key:
– Match the lighting to the subject matter. Somber topics suit low key, happy topics suit high key.
– Consider the location. Indoor/night = low key, outdoor/day = high key.
– Light-colored products and people pop in high key. Dark products and people stand out in low key.
– Bright, minimalist aesthetics need high key lighting. Gritty and moody aesthetics need low key.
– Use high key to convey openness, low key for intimacy.
– High key evokes positivity, low key evokes seriousness.
The visual goals, the product or person being lit, and the story you want to tell should all inform your choice between high and low key lighting. Let’s look at how to set up both styles.
How to Set Up High Key Lighting
Achieving a clean, bright high key lighting look requires strategic positioning of your light sources. Here are some tips:
– Use a large, diffused key light as the main light on your subject. Softboxes, umbrellas, or shoot through diffusion works well.
– Place reflectors or fill lights to fill in shadows on the opposite side of the key light.
– Add backlights or hair lights to separate the subject from the bright background.
– Choose a bright background that complements the subject. White, light gray, or light blue work well.
– Expose for the highlights while retaining some details in the shadows.
– Use lower contrast ratios between the key light and other lights.
– Add light sources behind or around the subject to fill the frame with brightness.
– Avoid strong directional lighting since shadows should be minimized.
– When lighting people, opt for bright, light clothing to complement the high key look.
Essentially, high key lighting requires placing your light sources strategically to achieve a very even, low contrast illumination across the whole scene. This retains detail and definition while still appearing bright and airy.
How to Set Up Low Key Lighting
To achieve strong, moody shadows against bright highlights, follow these low key lighting tips:
– Use a hard light source like a small diffused light or spotlight as your key light. This creates dark, hard shadows.
– Position the key light higher above the subject to make shadows more prominent.
– Place the subject against a dark, black background to make them stand out.
– Add only minimal fill lighting, if any, to retain shadow areas.
– Use higher lighting ratios like 8:1 between the key and fill.
– Allow the shadows to go completely black without filling them in.
– Spotlight only selective portions of the subject so other areas fall into shadow.
– Expose for the highlights and let the shadows go dark.
– Light and frame the subject to intentionally hide parts of them in shadow.
– When lighting people, darker clothing complements the low key look.
The key is creating areas of intense contrast between the highlights on your subject and the black shadows around them. This naturally guides the viewer’s eye while creating a mysterious, intimate mood.
High Key vs Low Key Lighting Example Photos
Let’s compare some high key and low key example photos side-by-side:
| High Key Lighting | Low Key Lighting |
|---|---|
|
|
| Bright, minimalist portrait on white background. Soft shadows. | Dark portrait against black with spotlight key light. Hard shadows behind. |
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| Even, low contrast lighting shows details in dress. White blown-out background. | Hard shadow and fall-off onto black background creates depth and shape. |
|
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| Bright, hazy look complemented by flowers and white wall. | Selective lighting isolates dark figure against blackness. |
As you can see, the high key examples have a lighter, airier ambiance that matches the cheerful settings and subjects. The low key examples use shadows to make the subjects more mysterious and dramatic against darker backgrounds.
How to Add High Key or Low Key Effects in Post Production
You can also achieve a high key or low key look by manipulating photos and videos during editing and post-production:
To make an image high key:
– Boost exposure and whites/highlights.
– Lift blacks/shadows to fill them in.
– Increase contrast slightly while avoiding true blacks.
– Desaturate colors partially towards white, gray, silver.
– Add glow, mist, or wash effects.
To make an image low key:
– Drop exposure and whites/highlights.
– Crush blacks/shadows to pure black.
– Increase contrast dramatically.
– Shift color tones towards darker hues.
– Use vignettes to darken edges and draw attention inward.
– Add film grain or noise to increase grittiness.
With practice, you can recognize when an image would benefit from tweaking the lighting ratio and contrast to be more high key or low key. Subtle changes can turn a flat, normal exposure into a much more intriguing high contrast look.
Using Gradients Between High Key and Low Key
High key and low key lighting represent two ends of the contrast spectrum. But you can also blend them together by using gradient effects:
– Gradually transition a scene from high key to low key using spot lights, flags, and masking.
– Light the subject in low key while keeping the background high key, or vice versa.
– Use high key on one side of the frame and low key on the other, with a gradual blend between them.
– Start high key and shift into low key over a video scene to show evolving moods and emotions.
– For products, keep the product itself high key, but use low key in the surrounding background.
Get creative with how you transition between zones of light and shadow. Combining high key and low key elements can let you enjoy the benefits of both.
Conclusion
Knowing when and how to apply high key vs low key lighting gives you immense creative control over the feel of your visuals. Use high key’s bright openness to convey positivity, innocence and purity. Use low key’s moody shadows to create depth, drama and mystery.
Carefully position your light sources to craft high key’s smooth, low contrast look or low key’s strong shadows and highlights. Tailor your choice of lighting to complement the subject, emotion and story. And explore using gradients to fluidly blend high key and low key together.
With mastery over these fundamental lighting styles, you can imbue your photography and cinematography with exactly the mood and atmosphere you want. So explore using high keys and low keys to add visual flair and deeper meaning to your images.
