Seasonal details
Making creative photographs requires the pushing of boundaries beyond the norms and trends of the day, even if it means breaking conventional rules. Two special techniques that might help you challenge your creativity and arrive with the original outcome are shooting in high- and low-key styles. Both are known to go well with some of the more challenging weather conditions and represent a great choice for those who are willing to experiment with different approaches.
High key
If you ever come across overcast conditions with flat, grey light and underwhelming skies, snowy landscapes or foggy scenery, you might wish to consider shooting high key. These conditions are great for achieving unique high-key images. High-key photography is a style that uses unusually bright lighting to reduce or completely blow out dark shadows in the image. High-key shots usually lack dark tones and the high-key look is generally thought of as positive and calming. Whilst shooting high key, camera settings should be set to overexpose the scene. Although there are many approaches to post-processing of high-key images, my usual first step would be converting the image to black and white to see if it has potential. My next step would be moving between the exposure, highlights, whites and contrast sliders to get the desired effect. Data in the histogram should be pushed all the way to the right edge.
Low key
The low-key style is defined by its darker tones and the captures have a shadowed – maybe even pure black – background. The subject seems to almost swim out of the shadows and light is used to shape the darkness. Low-key photography is as much about feeling as it is about technique. The photos are moody and mysterious, as they are dark and dramatic. The low-key style goes fantastically with stormy weather. It is also frequently used to emphasize texture in landscapes.
A surface can look flat and two-dimensional in bright light from in front of the camera, but it becomes textured and deep when the lights
emphasize shadows. Low-key photographs are often more interesting if you photograph subjects with a lot of surface texture – you can consider certain elements of the landscapes, such as sand dunes, rolling hills or layers of mountains. You can underexpose the image by adjusting shutter speed or using neutral density filters to block light.
As a useful guide, try to start by changing the exposure to make your image completely black in the post-processing stage. Then slowly brighten the image and stop when you can see the light just starting to show. This will show you where the natural highlights are in the scene.
Do the same thing with shadows, but change the exposure to make your image completely white. Then slowly lower the exposure and stop when you start seeing shadows emerge. Your main aim will be to give the shadows as much attention as the illuminated elements and use light to shape the darkness.
Particularly powerful effects can arise from the use of monochrome conversions, where light is used to outline the shape and form.
Two special techniques that might help you challenge your creativity are shooting in high- and low-key styles