Out of the White, a high-key photo from my Monochrome Collection.
What is high-key in photography?
The term ‘high-key’ describes a photographic style where the images consist of mainly bright colors and little to no dark shadows.
High-key photographs are often composed of primarily whites and light grays, meaning they are frequently monochrome images.
Another characteristic of a high-key photo is that the background is often overexposed.
Despite featuring a reduced tonal range, however, a high-key photo does not necessarily have to be black and white. Likewise, the background doesn’t always need to be white either.
High-key photos can contain color, including some dark and bold colors. They can have some nice contrast, too. For example, you may find a few dark colors or plain blacks in an otherwise light and bright photo.
High-key in photography means that the main portion of the image consists of light colors.
Related: → What Does High-Key Mean In Art?
Close to Dawn, a high-key photo from my Monochrome Collection.
It’s also noteworthy that not all bright photos are always purely high-key. There’s high-key and low-key – and many shades in between, i.e. mid-key.
Which brings us to the next point: what is low-key as opposed to high-key in photography?
What is high-key and low-key in photography?
Contrary to high-key photographs, low-key photos are typically made up of dark colors and lots of deep shadows. While high-key images have little contrast, low-key lives from the harsh differences between light and shadows.
This gives low-key photos a dramatic and emotional feel, which may also remind of melancholy, sadness and sentimentality.
Related: → What Does Low-Key Mean In Art?
Don’t follow me, a low-key photo from my Headshots Collection.
When to use high-key in photography?
High-key images tend to look light, soft, and playful due to their bright tones. The absence of dark shadows and harsh contrasts creates a cheerful, blithe, or sensual atmosphere.
With these attributes, high-key photography can be used for many different occasions. It ranges from portrait photography (mainly women and children) to lifestyle, fitness, health and wellness to food and other commercial products.
So why is high-key ideal for this type of photography?
Well, the brighter the photo, the happier – and healthier – the person or object will appear. This is especially important for health and lifestyle shoots.
A high-key lighting or high-key photography post processing has the advantage that a person’s skin appears smooth and healthy. Little imperfections (on both people and objects) are harder to see.
The balance of light between subject and background helps preserve detail in the subject, while the surroundings are often completely blurred out. That’s why product marketing makes use of high-key photography, too. The product is automatically in focus, while everything around it automatically vanishes from sight.
But you will also find high-key landscape photography and high-key photography of still life and animals.
There are no limits. It all depends on the creative goal of the photographer and the mood they want to achieve in the specific image!
Some color high-key photography examples of still life from my Nature & Macro Collection:
Pastel Rose Petals
A Quiet Day
What does high-key lighting mean?
As a rule of thumb, high-key lighting means that there needs to be a bright source of light that is able to reduce shadows and stark contrast.
Ideally, you have a source of light above the subject and one from behind the camera. The subject should be facing the light coming from behind the camera.
It’s important to fill the subject’s face with light – whether it’s an actual person or an object. You don’t want to have any shadows on your subject. If there still are, you can use reflectors and other light modifiers to fill those areas.
High-key lighting
First of all, you can shoot a high-key photo anywhere where there is enough light to bump up the bright tones and reduce the shadows.
That means you can use high-key photography outdoors, in your room, or your studio.
So let’s have a closer look at these three different lighting scenarios for high-key photography:
1. High-key photography outdoors
Shooting in the sunlight is definitely the cheapest form of high-key photography. (ᵕᴗᵕ) But using natural light is also a great way to create a soft and bright high-key photo.
Slightly cloudy days are best for high-key photography outdoors because too much sunlight may bump up the shadows and result in too many dark tones in your photo.
Choose a place with a light background and make sure the light is even.
If there are still some shadows on your subject, use a reflector to even out the tones.
2. high-key photography indoors
To create a marvelous high-key photo with natural light, you don’t need to be outdoors. You can also shoot in a room with a window large enough to expose your subject to a sufficient amount of light.
You can have your subject face the window, while having that natural source of light behind your camera. Similar to the sunlight when creating high-key photography outdoors.
However, you can also position your subject in front of the window, with your camera facing the source of light coming from behind the subject. That way, the background will automatically be bright and free of shadows.
Again, you can use a reflector to bounce light back into your subject, in case there are still some dark areas to fill.
One more tip: just like with high-key photography outdoors, you should also avoid direct sunlight when shooting indoors.
If the direct light comes in from behind your subject, it will produce too harsh contrast and too many unwanted shadows.
If the direct light falls directly onto your subject, on the other hand, it will overexpose the edges of the subject.
3. Studio high-key photography
Option #3 is to use a studio for high-key photography. Here, you need to work with a background light and a key light.
Of course, you would again choose a background that is light in color.
Use one key light to light your subject, and one or two background lights to light the background. The background lights should be brighter than your key light.
If there are still too many shadows on your subject, you might need a light modifier or a fill light to brighten up those areas.
These were the three scenarios that are ideal for high-key photography. Now let’s come to the camera settings!
What camera settings to use for high-key photography?
The exact camera settings always depend on the lighting scenario and on the individual lighting conditions.
However, what all high-key photos do have in common is the overexposed look.
And that overexposed look is achieved by adjusting the aperture. That’s why it’s best to shoot in aperture priority mode (Av) where you select the aperture and the camera controls the appropriate shutter speed automatically.
As a rule of thumb, your aperture should be something between f/8 and f/6 – depending on your particular lighting.
Take a few test shots to see what they look like and then re-adjust the aperture accordingly.
If you’re doing a high-key portrait shoot, you want skin tones to look bright but still have some detail in it.
Take a look at the histogram. You’re doing great when the histogram is leaning a little more towards the right. That means more highlights than shadows are present.
High-key photography post processing
Once you’ve found the right lighting, the best camera settings and are happy with the final shot, it’s time for some high-key photography post processing in your favorite editing app.
Even if your photo did not come out of the camera exactly the way you planned, you can still create a great high-key image in Photoshop.
In my tutorial on how to make a high-key photo in Photoshop, I show you the 2 best techniques to create an amazing high-key image.
If your histogram doesn’t look the way it should – with the spike being more on the right side – I show you how you can fix that with just a few easy steps!
What is the difference between high-key and low-key lighting?
As opposed to high-key lighting, low-key lighting often uses a single source of light only. This can be studio or natural light.
The purpose of low-key lighting is to create a dark and dramatic effect in the photo. That’s why you want to capture as many shadows as possible.
You can use low-key lighting for portrait, landscape and still life photography.
The more dark tones you capture, the more dramatic your low-key photo will look. You can experiment with the brightness of your light source, but also with the angle it comes from.
Contrary to high-key lighting, a low-key light shouldn’t face the subject directly. It’s better to let it fall on the subject from the side or from behind. This will create interesting tonal transitions.
Just like high-key in photography, low-key doesn’t mean that the image must be black and white. It can include color.
However, low-key photographs are oftentimes turned into black & white during post-processing, because this tends to intensify their dramatic effect.
I hope you enjoyed this article about ‘What is High-Key in Photography?’ and got inspired to shoot your own high-key photographs! I wish you lots of fun doing so! Please drop a link to your high-key creations in the comments and don’t forget to share this post with other photographers!
Your practical tips on lighting and composition are just what I needed to improve my photography. It’s amazing how a few adjustments can make such a big difference in the quality of the photos. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Emily, great that the post was helpful. High-key is one of my favorite photography techniques and I wish you lot of fun taking your own high-key photos!