High Key Portraiture
Photographing
in ‘high key’ simply means applying lots of light to illuminate a subject so
much so, that you eliminate all or most of the harsh shadows. High Key
photography is used to convey a positive/bright tone and is often used to
photograph subjects that are beautiful, funny, or light-hearted. This style of
photography was originally developed for use in films, as a solution for
screens that couldn’t display contrast properly, but it has evolved into more
of a style choice.
My attempts at creating High Key
Images
IMAGE 1
BEFORE
AFTER
The
children of a friend of mine, were only too happy to visit the studio and model
for me which made my job a much easier
as they were excited to be there (showing them the darkroom helped!), and they
were happy to do whatever I asked of them.
Studio:
I used a white background, 2 x softboxes
situated to the front 2 corners (45 degrees) of the models, 1 x light facing
the background to inject more light into the setup, and Wireless flash
triggers. The lights were set to between
4 and 5 on the settings. I used this
setup throughout the entire family/children shoot.
Camera: I always use a Canon EOS 400D with either a
50mm lens or 18-135 zoom lens, depending on where and what I am photographing.
For
this high key shoot, my settings were F/6.3, ISO 100, 1/125sec and metering
mode was set to Evaluative/Pattern as from what I’ve learnt so far, this seems
to be a good all-round metering mode.
Post-processing: I
used ‘levels’ in Photoshop to inject a little more white into this image as I
considered the original image to be a little grey.
The
original image was a little too dark on the floor. There are grey areas which I wanted to appear
whiter so I think I should’ve perhaps lowered the lights for this floor shoot
to ensure that enough light was hitting the models. You can see that their faces/skin
looks flat and grey although if you look closely enough, I have managed to get
the catch-lights in their eyes – I think these would appear more prominent if
I’d lowered the lights too. I’d set the
lights up for a mid-height (eye level) shoot as the models were just going to
be standing. Of course, this changed
throughout the shoot, so for future shoots, I would be ready and prepared to
adjust the position of the lights where necessary to minimise shadows and
ensure enough light is being directed exactly where I need it to. For the entire time, I was conscious of
keeping the children safe in the Studio, and with them being excitable it
reminded me that I need to be able to think about a lot of things at once!
IMAGE 2
During
the same photo shoot, I was asked to produce a series of black & white
photographs too. I captured this image
in colour before converting it into black & white using Photoshop. I thought I would try turning the camera at a
slight angle, to photograph the baby straight-on, hoping this would add some
interest to the image. I was pleased
with the result of trying this! There is
more light to the top left corner of the image compared to the top right corner
– again, this was because I had only one light
directed at the background and on reflection, I should have used 2, to
spread the light more evenly across the background. Maybe positioning just the
one light a little less close to the background would help with this too? I
will try this in future practise shoots.
I
didn’t pay too much attention to composition with this image, as I just wanted
to capture the detail of the hair, facial features and convey the loving
emotion from the older sister to younger brother. I was thinking of ‘portrait photography tips’
during this time though so I did not let the girls nose break the outline of
her face. The camera angle looking down slightly onto the models has made this
image a little more flattering.
BEFORE
AFTER
As
you can see in this original image, there isn’t as much light on the right side
of the image in comparison to the left side, and overall, the colour is a
little flat. I did not change the White
Balance setting on the camera at all during this shoot, which is one contributory
factor to this image not being as vibrant as it could be. I need to try either moving the background
light further away in the hope that it spreads more light across the whole
background, or using another light on the right hand side. There are other ways of setting up a high
key shoot too, so I am going to investigate and practise these to see if my
results are any better!
IMAGE 3
BEFORE
This
is a picture of my daughter Adriana, at the same studio shoot, not very happy
about having to wear a hat! I do not believe that children should always be
asked to smile when being photographed. Often, the most natural facial
expressions can be captured when they are just left to their own devices,
forgetting there is a photographer nearby, waiting to capture that perfect
picture. This image conveys this
perfectly!
AFTER - “No more photo’s
please mummy!”
I converted this to black &
white in Photoshop and adjusted the levels slightly to bring some lost detail
back. I also cropped it along the right
side to show some composition. As you
will see from the histogram below, it is still over-exposed – but this is the
result I wanted.
In
the original image above, the background is quite dark. At this point, Adriana had been crawling
around and was sat quite a distance away from the background which is why it
looks a little dark.
These
are the ‘before’ and ‘after’ histograms:
Before
After
Still
over-exposed! Too much white at the
right hand side of the histogram.
IMAGE 4
I
asked the children to lie on the floor, heads together, and I just stood over
them and clicked the shutter release. I
wasn’t looking through the viewfinder so had no idea how this photo would turn
out, it was purely experimental, for fun.
Despite the lack of composition and over-exposure, I really like the
natural expressions on their faces! This was a favourite of the parents too!
"Lets get our heads together!"
IMAGE 5
"Family is everything"
This
image presents the same issue as all of the others – darker on the right side
compared to the left side. From this
shoot, I have learnt how my studio light set up needed adjusting to ensure a
more evenly lit background. I used 3
lights – 2 at the front corners directed towards the models at 45 degrees
(flashed when shutter release pressed), and one light to the side, directed at
the background to inject more light here. In future, I would try using 4 lights, one in
each corner, 2 facing the models at 45 degrees (flash/strobe), and 2 facing the
background, also at angles to ensure even distribution of light across the
background.
The
children had let me photograph them for an hour and were so well behaved and
accommodating that I agreed we would have some silly fun at the end of the
shoot.
These
are the resulting images:
This was the most important part of the shoot ... having FUN, FUN, FUN!
