Alex Cummings photographer a manipulator of multiple images not really a proponent of the use of extreme High or Low Key works, welcomes you to this is his page on High or Low Key practices in the art of photography and retouching
It is important to note that a high key photograph is not over exposed it is exposed correctly to achieve the desired result and the same applies to a low key photograph the exposure and lighting are set to give the photographer the desired result
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Above a high key version of one of two twin sisters who I had the
privilege of photographing, like most high-key studies it is very suited
to this type of work since any blemishes are obscured by the lack of
detail, fortunately it was not a problem here anyway since the young
lady had a lovely completion. There are some who would take the high key
a stage further but I like to retain some detail in my photos.
Disagree with our explanation make a comment
.
Above a low key version of what I have since
referred to as my mummified hand, like most low-key studies one has to
either have very good eyesight or look at he image closely to see all of
the detail.
Above a straight photo one of the few which was quite
successful. the bright red of the boat with its reflection
combined with hose reflections made this an appealing image. This photo
was originally on print negative film. I have put this here to show the
normal brightness of a pictorial picture Location
Knysna
whereas below the image in many parts is almost invisible a problem experienced when trying to work with high key images
Above this image is typical of a lot of portraits
taken and clamed to be low-key, possibly from the start of this sentence
you will gather I don't like them very much as unless you are trying to
show the effects of daylight why only half light a person?
Over lighting it at that!
I will stick to using this form of lighting on inanimate objects
This could be classed as by as a high-key as it meets
the criterion of few colours etc. but I never gave that a thought when
taking it many years ago. However some would say that to be truly high
key it would need to look like
this. other version. notice it is almost monochrome because of the
few colours or lack of colour saturation. Me I like my version!
Above a high key version of a Hibiscus flower encompassed with a
bubble
,
Above a Low key version image of a composite image depicting a scene of a window,
by now I hope it is obvious that high key means mostly light and low key
means that most of the content is dark
Above a high key version image of a composite image depicting two butterflies and a geranium
The photo of the girl waving a cloth is not Mine
but used to illustrate high-key at its extreme
as you can see the piece of "cloth" she is holding is almost gone
The two Photographs of the Girl holding the Guitar are mine, the one
with the Sky background is in the High Key range as there are very
little dark areas.
The other however due to the mass of black could be considered in the
Low Key range, I personally seldom go out to shoot high or low key as
you will perhaps notice in my work. The problem with portraiture
in either High or low key is that often the photographer feels the
need to take it too far and partially hide the features of the model or client.
The man is also not mine but used to demonstrate the low-key at its extreme a good strong portrait but please, please, do not use this technique on a female portrait
Below in creative photography I always advised people to bracket their exposures as far as light is concerned but making use of the zoom function also helps
Other Pages on the site include Information Boats, Cars, Comp-n-clip Composites Composites 2 Creative Different ? Examples, Flowers, Framing high or low key. How to Landscapes, Landscape-n-Nature Manipulation, Minimalism More examples, Multiple images, Nature, Nature Wildlife Photo-art, Portraits Sliding images, Straight, Surreal Surreal-pg.2 Rules, Windows and the page index or the site map
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& belong to Alex Cummings unless otherwise stated.
More photographs can be found on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/alex.cummings.1940/
or at
https://plus.google.com/collection/ULgVRE
