Weekly Assignment #103: Natural High Key
Nikolai
Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
We all know (or heard) and seen numerous high key images. Web is full of them, fashion and "lifestyle" magazines are full of them... Technically, high key scenario defines the image as a properly exposed (not blown out!) one, but with no dark shadows (more here...).
Typically the "lack of shadows" part is reached by using very light (preferably white) background and lots and lots of studio lighting.
However this time our task to try to get one without selling your first-born.
Think about it for a second: where would you get a naturally bright background and a lot of light? Yeah, right, in the middle of the winter...:wink
So, this time, my dear Dave, you shall have no excuse about not being in SoCal: snowy fields should give you perfect natural high key background, while the sun should provide all the power in the world to eliminate the last of dark shadows.
The last tricky part is to find a natural fill/main light to avoid the shadows in front of the subject (if you have it facing you and not the sun). Here the power of reflection comes to help. Steep South-looking snow-covered hill can play a perfect reflector role. And of course poster of foam boards can work as well in case you dont have a "real" reflector.
For those few unlucky souls who, like yours truly, live in the areas where The White Christmas is only mentioned in carols and movies - get creative. Sand or large body of water can play a role of a white seamless better than you may suspect.
So let's get all natural (No flash!). High-key (no dark shadows). One entry per person. Multiple entries are OK if they a drastically different.
EDIT: more on high-keys: http://www.diyphotography.net/lighting-high-key-and-low-key
Let's get some natural high keys!
Typically the "lack of shadows" part is reached by using very light (preferably white) background and lots and lots of studio lighting.
However this time our task to try to get one without selling your first-born.
Think about it for a second: where would you get a naturally bright background and a lot of light? Yeah, right, in the middle of the winter...:wink
So, this time, my dear Dave, you shall have no excuse about not being in SoCal: snowy fields should give you perfect natural high key background, while the sun should provide all the power in the world to eliminate the last of dark shadows.
The last tricky part is to find a natural fill/main light to avoid the shadows in front of the subject (if you have it facing you and not the sun). Here the power of reflection comes to help. Steep South-looking snow-covered hill can play a perfect reflector role. And of course poster of foam boards can work as well in case you dont have a "real" reflector.
For those few unlucky souls who, like yours truly, live in the areas where The White Christmas is only mentioned in carols and movies - get creative. Sand or large body of water can play a role of a white seamless better than you may suspect.
So let's get all natural (No flash!). High-key (no dark shadows). One entry per person. Multiple entries are OK if they a drastically different.
EDIT: more on high-keys: http://www.diyphotography.net/lighting-high-key-and-low-key
Let's get some natural high keys!
"May the f/stop be with you!"
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Comments
thank you for going first!
Can you describe your setup and provide an original color version? With the current image it's really hard to tell if it the shadows or rather black-furred dog who's been lit properly according to the assignment...
Sure. Hmmm, setup. There really wasn't much setup. The sun is relatively low in the sky and our yard is quite surrounded with trees. I managed to get Cleo to stop for a moment in a wedge of sunlight so she was brightly lit. I knelt in the snow and positioned myself so I was not much higher that her and so that my shadow did not fall on her.
Looking at this original image you can see the shadow from her ear on her left shoulder. To eliminate this shadow I really needed a reflector off to her left, which would have also helped with the shadow on the side of her face too. But being a playful dog she wouldn't sit for a reflector setup so I'm afraid I cheated and cropped out that portion of the image. By boosting the exposure a bit, a black & white conversion and tweaking the channels a bit I remove most of the shadow on the left side of her face and end up with a passable high key image.
Hmmm..., making all these excuses shows that I haven't done the assignment right have I?
Wanna try again with a more willing subject?
Sure. Today may be better since it is totally overcast and the lighting will be REALLY flat...
Sigh, I know. I kind of liked it better overexposed so I left it.
I also know I'm not being a very good student. I think people tend to fuss with images more today because of all the processing we have with digital images compared to film images. People will try and fix a bad shot to make it usable rather than learning how to take a proper picture.
In any case, here is the original without any processing. I still like the washed out image better.
I went to my work to get a lens hood since I dont have one, (I work at a Photography Studio / Camera Shop / Mini Lab) and I ended up buying a new lens (ProMaster 17-50mm f/2.8... promaster is like Tamron but waaay cheaper), a wireless shutter release, two lens hoods, and a lens cap because I lost one of my fancy Canon ones
Unfortunately, I took my picture before I got the new lens but after I got the Lens Hood. I went back and forth and kept buying stuff all day...
So, here it goes.
Pure sun light, no reflectors (unless you count snow
Ok, so I cheated a little bit, I couldn't see the minor shadows on my camera LCD because it was so flippin bright out today.
Jeremy, thank you for your entry!
Now, can you be a good sport and use sun as a rim (not as main), find some reflector-like thingie and fill the shadows with it?
Yeah, I'll take another go at it some other day, I work all day tomorrow (gotta pay for them new toys
How's this one?
EXIF is embedded
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thank you!
I love the mood of the picture, very festive and peaceful!
However, depsite of a lot of snow this is not a high key image in technical sense of the term. Your primary subjects (people) show a lot of dark shadowy parts.
Please check the expamples in the OP and note the need for some "reflector" device to fill the shadows.
Be advised: this is *not* an easy assignemnt, even if it sounds like one. Proper high-key is challenging even in the studio, and only more so in all-natural environment.
Oops, sorry... I've never heard before of the term "high key images"... by looking at the examples in google, I think I understand now... (reflector I don't have, but if is doable with only sunlight, I guess I'll give it another try, today, or maybe tomorrow)
Thank you soo much for your time
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You don't have to have one. Get creative, many surface reflect light, as I mentioned in OP...
EXIF is embedded
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Travelways.com
EXIF is embedded
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Travelways.com
Tatiana, don't rush it. As I said, it's not that simple...
Let's see if I can help. (I'm learning too.) See the shadows at the top of each window? That keeps it from being a high key picture. Look closely at the high key photos you see when you do a google search. Many of them look over exposed so you think that an over exposed picture is high key. But that isn't it. It is that the pictures have no shadows at all. A low key photo is jam packed with shadows and looks underexposed. Rather than thinking of high/low key as over/under exposed. Think of high/low key as no/lots of shadows.
If anything this is low key because it is ALL shadow.
Or am I misinterpreting this Nikolai? (Feel free to correct me.)
No, this was a normal well exposed shot - I washed it out in Photoshop to make it look like the ones
in google.
Anyway, there is no sense on trying to do something I don't know anything about...
I will take my time to learn and understand the idea and the technique, before I'll try again.
Thank you guys
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Hi Nik, everyone! Never tried this before: WITHOUT flash! Very hard without being outside, unless one has a room with lots of light and many or large window/s. SO here is my best from this morning. Amazing how much dark hair absorbs light..amazing! I think this is borderline compliant and certainly with proper LR or PP it could go middle/Hi or just Hi altogether~~
cheers, tom
I cannot figure out how to ensure the Meta?EXIF data shows~
Tom,
thank you!
As you said yourself, it's borderline there. As you can see by the histogram, even if you completely get rid of background (which, btw, is an important part of any high key, hence my original suggestion to shoot against the sun on a snowy field) your subject shows enough of the dark pixel. And it doesn't look like it's hair alone. You did a great effort of using white cloth and placing her in a white-walled room by the window, but I don't think you can possibly have a proper highkey indoors, it's simply not enough light...
Oh, ho! A challenge!