- Girish Vaghela Contact Girish Vaghela Girish Vaghela's Gallery |
High Key Photography What is a "High Key" image?
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W. |
That's an image with lots and lots of light. Often the "color" white dominates in those images.
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Michael A. Bielat |
Think model head shots: Clean, white and not a lot (if any) shadows.
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Alan N. Marcus |
Hi Girish, High Key: A style whereby the resulting image is comprised mainly of white and near-white tones. Mid-range tones are permissible but the scene is devoid of black and near-black tones. Lighting and background set the mood, which is light and airy. It works best if the subject is light-toned as well. Thus, the background is pure or nearly pure white. The set-up requires more light on the background than on the subject. The background is generally quite evenly illuminated, and the background light is set to illuminate with twice or better the intensity as compared to the strength of the main at the subject plane. The final image consists mainly of white and light gray tones. Some shadows are required, or else depth perception is lost. To achieve, shadows are well filled by a lamp positioned close to the camera lens. This fill lamp is adjusted so light energy from it arrives at the subject plane at 1/2 the brilliance produced by the main light. This achieves a 3:1 lighting ratio, which is the maximum ratio that retains the high-key effect. Additionally the high-key effect is best achieved by positioning the main light near to and above the camera (frontal lighting). If the lighting is flat 2:1 ratio, shadows are too well filled and depth perception is lost. If the fill and main arrive at the subject plane with the same brilliance, the result is a 2:1 ratio. Alan Marcus
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- Girish Vaghela Contact Girish Vaghela Girish Vaghela's Gallery |
Thank you W. S., Michael, and Alan. Do you have examples where I can look?
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W. |
Norman Phillips wrote a book about it, Girish. But there are dozens more.
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