HIGH KEY LOW KEY
LIGHTING - High key - low key
Light, bright images can be used to infer joy, happiness, openness, summer days and good times. Dark, gloomy images can be used to evoke a sense of drama, sadness, hardship or fear. The overall range of these emotive tones in a photograph is known as ‘value’ or ‘key’. The brighter an image the more high key it is, conversely, the darker an image the more low key it is said to be. You may find that your work gravitates predominantly to one or the other. I tend to gravitate towards low key imagery.
So a way of portraying mood in an image is to alter the key structure. This can work in any form of subject matter. You can make your subject appear open and receptive, or closed and threatening, depending on what signals you get from your subject and how you wish to portray it.
All photography and information © Jon Davison 2022.