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Mastering High-Key and Low-Key Photography

Subverting standard exposure balance can help achieve better imagery. Read on for high-key and low-key descriptions, applications and how-to steps

Most photos are made in scenes with a balance of bright and dark elements, recorded with what is considered a standard exposure. That’s to say, the light present in a scene should be exposed so that neither the brightest nor darkest parts lose too much recognisable detail. For a photo like this, a histogram will display an even spread of values, and perhaps more importantly, the image will appear mostly true to life.

High-key and low-key photography, however, exist outside this norm. They can be powerful tools, either for storytelling purposes or sheer visual interest. Knowing what they are, as well as how and when to use them, will give you a new outlook on your photography.

What Is High-Key Photography?

High-key photography refers to an unusual presence of bright elements within an image. This can be achieved by artificially lighting a scene or finding the right natural light, then exposing appropriately. It’s important to understand that high-key photography isn’t thoughtless overexposure.

Low-contrast lighting is an essential component of high-key photography. Almost all elements of your scene should be lit fairly evenly, with the exception of your main subject, which should be darker. This doesn’t mean finding a scene that’s bright to the eye – we can make it look brighter in-camera. Instead, look to avoid any scene with a mixture of light and shadows.

This type of lighting is commonly made or found within smaller scenes. In a wide-open landscape, for example, we’ll almost always find a mixture of light and shadow somewhere. As a result, high-key photography is a great approach to portraiture, family and wedding photography, as well as nature and wildlife.

Looking at the common uses of high-key photography, we must also consider its purpose. It conveys lightness, joy and a sense of ethereal beauty. Subject matter should be chosen accordingly.

How to Make a High-Key Photo

With the right scene set, it’s time to create our effect. If we’re taking a thorough approach, we’ll start with metering. We’re looking to expose correctly on the darker main subject within our evenly lit scene, which is challenging in any photometry mode that reads light across the full frame. Instead, we’ll meter one small part of it.

On any current X Series camera, metering mode can be found by pressing MENU OK, navigating to the SHOOTING SETTING menu, then scrolling down to PHOTOMETRY. Once selected, choose the SPOT option.

Now, your camera will present an exposure reading based solely on the subject contained within the active focusing point. Position your main subject accordingly, then adjust exposure settings to get a neutral or slightly positive value on the Exposure Compensation meter. As you do so, you’ll notice the brighter surroundings of your scene move towards overexposure.

In more impromptu moments, try your X Series camera’s High-Key Advanced Filter. This does the hard work for you, by enhancing brightness and reducing the appearance of a scene’s light contrast automatically. This is accessed by putting the camera in FILTER drive mode, then selecting the HIGH-KEY option as a FILTER SETTING in the SHOOTING SETTING menu. Remember, the effect will be limited outside of optimal high-key photography conditions.

What Is Low-Key Photography?

Low-key photography refers to a predominantly dark image, save for some small, nicely lit details. Once again, this look is achievable with natural or artificial light. Just like high-key imagery, we aren’t looking to incorrectly expose a scene. Instead, we need to find or create the right lighting conditions, then accentuate them.

In the best low-key photo scenes, we’re looking for contrast. To get the strongest effect, the brighter your main subject is than its surroundings, the better. These surroundings don’t need to be objectively dark since we can darken them with considered exposure settings. For example, a city street at sunset isn’t pitch black – but we can make it so. What’s important is for the street to be significantly darker than any last rays of sunlight cutting between its buildings.

Low-key images are moody and contemplative, which limits our choice of subject matter more than appropriate light conditions do. High-contrast light is found virtually everywhere. It’s this specific emotional impact that explains why we commonly see the technique used for documentary work, portraiture, landscapes and street photography.

How to Make a Low-Key Photo

Spot metering, as outlined above for high-key photography, also works well when darkening the majority of a scene. We can meter just the bright main subject of our image, adjust to a correct exposure for that one element, then watch the rest of the scene fall away into underexposed darkness. Do this for the best results.

You’ll also find a dedicated Low-Key Advanced Filter within your X Series camera, accessed in the same way as the high-key option through FILTER SETTING in the SHOOTING SETTING menu. It’s simple and effective.

For an even more dramatic low-key look, increase shadow tone in-camera, then simply use the exposure compensation dial to lower exposure by however many stops are required to make your subject’s surroundings appropriately dark. Photographic contrast, like the contrast within the scene’s light, is best. The tone curve is found within the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu. Remember to add value, not subtract. Lessening shadow harshness will make dark areas of frame brighter.

Creating a low-key image this way, we can avoid spot metering if we must. It’s easy enough to assess correct exposure visually on one subject when it’s surrounded by darkness. It’s much more challenging when that subject is washed out in surrounding brightness, as with high-key photography.

You’re ready to create dramatic images outside the so-called correct limits of exposure. High-key and low-key looks remind us that photography is art; as long as you’re serving your own creative vision for a scene, there are no rules.