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Major Nikon

(36,925 posts)
3. At the risk of being pedantic, all of these are high key
Wed May 27, 2020, 03:31 PM
May 2020

A low key portrait is one that has a strong lighting contrast on the subject. For all of these the lighting appears to come from the window behind and slightly left of the camera. If the lighting was coming more to the left, it would create a low key portrait provided the fill on the right was 2 stops or more less.

For example, this is a high key portrait. Notice how the lighting comes from above and slightly left, but the shadow under her snout is faint due to fill lighting that is only about one stop under.


Notice the difference in this photo. Here the lighting is being provided by one main strobe high and to the right. Another fill light was used high and to the left, but it is somewhere around 3 stops lower, creating a high contrast from one side to the other.

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