52 in 2015 Week 6 Low Key

Week 6 and it’s taken me until the weekend to get the final photograph for Low Key. With the successful visit into the National Park and the “Hairy Moment” in our pursuit of snow I needed some time to recover before shooting that Low Key photograph. But what exactly is Low Key?

Wikipedia describes Low Key as a style of lighting for photography, film or television and a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for illumination. Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector. However I think Lakshman Lyer’s definition sums it up far more simply;

One can consider/define the over exposed and under exposed portraits as High Key and Low Key Portraits.

So to this weeks photograph. I managed to convince this rather distinguished “old” gentleman to pose for me whilst I experimented with lighting.

I have to admit he was not the easiest subject to photograph because he thought he knew a bit about photography and kept chiming in. “Move the light there” or “I look better on my other side” but eventually I managed to get two photographs I could work with.

Now it seems like the chosen medium for Low Key photographs is Black and White which I’ve been experimenting with recently so here goes. I hope you like them?