Project 52 - Week 17: Low Key

It would have been a good thing to set up this week's theme in studio using a dark backdrop, one light and dark props (if any).  However, when you have an entire walk-in closet shelf collapse, and that closet is off the studio, the room immediately becomes the holding tank for all the items in the closet while the shelf is being repaired.  Yes, this did happen, and, yes, it is an ongoing project.

There are other rooms in my house, of course, but I started reading up on photographing a low key image outdoors, thought it might be a challenge, and decided to give it a whirl.

I had two choices.  First, I could use one light and take the image outside after 9:00 p.m. when it was very dark.  Second, I could use Mother Nature's light at the almost-end-of-the-day, and do the rest in post processing.

There is a misconception in the first option.  Low key does not necessarily mean lack of light.  "Low key" means the vast majority of the tones in the scene are darker than middle gray.  Low key is independent of illumination.  I read that it is possible to take a low key image in the daylight, if you find shadows, or perhaps late enough in the day where the light is waning.

Let me share my low key image below, then we can talk about how I got there.

This is Danny.  Using a black and white dog made is either good or bad depending on how you look at it. We are used to white being bright, so it's easy to see when it's not, and track that "darker than middle grey."  On the other hand, depending on your light source and strength, you can really blow out the white.  This photograph was taken at 6:58 p.m. (along with about 20 other photos--I have about two that worked, this being one of them).  That light is not from a strobe or flash.  It is from the sky.  The light comes at an angle between our house and the trees.  There is just a small sliver at the right time of day, and this is why I selected the timeframe.  At a certain angle you can look behind Danny and see the tops of trees, the hill line and even some of the lines of our fence.  I left them there and didn't totally black out the background, because I wanted some depth in the photo, and a small outline on his left ear.  Remember, I am using no hair light, no back light, nothing.  This is all natural light.

You don't "place" Danny.  Danny decides where he wants to be and you hope it's where you might want him to be and then he stays there for quite some time of his own accord.  He happened to place himself about 12 feet from our chain link fence, smack dab where that light was hitting his side.  That is the last light of the day heading toward a sunset.

I followed the directions from the readings and research that I did.  Camera at ISO 100, change the speed to either let in or decrease the light (my speed was actually at 1/1000 to decrease the light).  Be sure the subject is placed at least 10 feet from any background (so that 12 feet worked).  Some other specifics:  I used f/5.6, spot metering, and the focal length was 180mm.  In post, I took most of the golden light out of Danny's coat to keep the image  in a simple color scheme.  I darkened the background a bit.

And there you have it.  It's fun to experiment like this.  Having done this once, I might do some things a little differently the next time.  I still want to shoot the studio shot and see how that turns out.  To see more low key images, the blog circle is up and ready to go.  Start here with Kim Hollis of BARKography based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Have a wonderful weekend!