How do you do Low and High Key Picture?

[SAShruby]

Is there a method how to expose and develop film and printing method to get high and low key picture?
Is usage of hot lights neccessary?
Thanks.

[Brian Ellis]

In general you get a high key picture by "overexposing" the film, though when you do it intentionally it isn't really overexposing, it's giving more than normal exposure in order to increase the negative density and thereby cause areas of the image that normally would be say dark to light gray to become some shade of light gray to white. That might be coupled with longer than normal film development to further increase the density on the high end. Low key is the opposite though film development will have relatively little effect with an "underexposed" negative. Use of hot lights isn't necessary. Obviously not all scenes or subjects are suited to either technique.

[Maris Rusis]

Exposing and developing film appropriately for high and low key pictures is important but it is not enough. You need high and low key subject matter as well.

High key subject matter is mainly middle grey and up to white. My exposure strategy is to read the brightest subject value in which I want discernable texture and give three stops more exposure; in effect putting the high value on zone VIII. Importantly, a high key picture seems to be enhanced if there are small black areas as well. They seem to kick the pale tones to a higher level of luminosity.

Low key subjects tend to be from middle grey down to black. Exposure, for me, is based on putting the darkest textured subject value on zone III 1/2 by spot metering the area and then giving 1 1/2 stops less exposure. Include a small area of white, say a specular highlight, for a good "kicker" to the dark tones.

In the past I used to extend development for "key" pictures. Now variable contrast paper gives me enough control and I use standard development.

[SAShruby]

Thanks for the posts.

[RDKirk]

You don't expose or process for "high key" or "low key." "Key" is a matter of lighting and scene selection.

If you want "high key," you select a scene that is mostly middle tone and higher and lighted at a low shadow/highlight ratio. If you want "low key," you select a scene that is mostly middle tone and lower and lighted to a high shadow/highlight ratio.

But exposure and processing should be appropriate to render the middle tones, where most facial tones lie, properly.

[CG]

You don't expose or process for "high key" or "low key." "Key" is a matter of lighting and scene selection.

If you want "high key," you select a scene that is mostly middle tone and higher and lighted at a low shadow/highlight ratio. If you want "low key," you select a scene that is mostly middle tone and lower and lighted to a high shadow/highlight ratio.

But exposure and processing should be appropriate to render the middle tones, where most facial tones lie, properly.

RDKirk is right - to a degree - yes, you can shoot what's in front of you at the exposure an incident meter tells you, (assuming the scene is high reflectance for high key and low reflectance for low key ) but I think there's room for other approaches to exposure and rendering. Pushing your exposure up or down will do other interesting things. So will changes in processing. So will combinations of all the above. If you can create a scene where the reflectance is inherently the key you want, a straight exposure may do the trick, but isn't it possible the addition of other controls may take things further? Isn't it possible that a low reflectance scene might be interpreted interestingly as a high key result? And vise versa?

Another item, maybe a tiny touch of diffusion, just below the threshold of where a viewer notices the diffusion, but that the character of a brilliant light suffused scene is gently emphasized. I know, messing with diffusion is anathema to some, but there are a few super subtle diffusion filters and techniques avaiable. Just a thought.

My mantra on new techniques: before you try to do "finished work" do repeated cycles of test, experiment, see results, take notes, and repeat with intellegent variations till you know what works and what doesn't.

>>>Is usage of hot lights neccessary?.>>>

In a word. No. But, continuous light of whatever kind, hot - tungsten, cooler - fluorescents, leds, daylight ... makes it easier for some - me included - to anticipate the results. Especially where the goal is making visible and emphasizing a chosen character of light.

[RDKirk]

Well, one can always expose film however one desires, but traditionally, "high key" and "low key" have not been a matter of varying exposure. For instance, Karsh's portraits are classically low key, but exposure is accurate.

[Ole Tjugen]

Both "high key" and "low key" should contain the full range from white to black; it's only the distribution that is different.

Oddly enough I find both easier to do with slightly extended development! You want a tonal range that is predominantly at one or the other end, and with very little "middle grey" values in it. In other words you want to have as much as possible of the negative on the toe or shoulder - or indeed both to get the full range.

[Brian Ellis]

"You don't expose or process for "high key" or "low key."

I do.

"If you want "high key," you select a scene that is mostly middle tone and higher and lighted at a low shadow/highlight ratio. If you want "low key," you select a scene that is mostly middle tone and lower and lighted to a high shadow/highlight ratio."

So a high or low key photograph actually isn't "made," you just find a scene that's already high key or low key and expose and process normally? That isn't how I do it.

"But exposure and processing should be appropriate to render the middle tones, where most facial tones lie, properly."

That's probably true if one is photographing faces but there are many high and low key photographs that aren't portraits.

"Well, one can always expose film however one desires, but traditionally, "high key" and "low key" have not been a matter of varying exposure."

That's not correct. You seem to be thinking only of studio photography, where the photographer can control the lighting. When you can't control the lighting you can still make a high or low key photograph if the scene lends itself to that type of photograph (e.g. a relatively low contrast scene without major important areas that fall below about Zone IV in the case of high key). Or vice versa for a low key photograph. In fact outside of the studio adjusting the exposure to an exposure that is different than the exposure of that would be used for a normal photograph is how a photograph becomes a high or low key photograph.

"For instance, Karsh's portraits are classically low key, but exposure is accurate."

I don't think anyone has suggesed that you make a high or low key photograph with inaccurate exposure. You make a high or low key photograph with exposure that's accurate for the photograph you want to make, but unless you can control the lighting that's often different from a "normal" exposure of the same scene.

[JW Dewdney]

Is there a method how to expose and develop film and printing method to get high and low key picture?
Is usage of hot lights neccessary?
Thanks.

I think the best way to cut through all the confusion here, is to answer, simply:

expose and develop as you would for a normal subject (if you don't incident meter, you should consider it).

AND, ESPECIALLY...

for a high key photo, take a picture of light-colored things.
for a low-key photo, take a picture of dark-colored things.