Low key lighting is something I've always wanted to try quite sometime ago but unfortunately when the willingness to try arrived, I've already sold off my flash. Now with a manual flash which I recently acquired, I really love to put those tutorials into practice. If got time (highly doubt that I ever going to have), next time will write a brief review on the flash. You can find a lot of tutorials on how to do a low key lighting on the internet (well, you can learn pretty much anything from there these days anyway.) There is another type which is call a high key lighting which practically an opposite of low key. Haven't muster enough desire to try that one yet. Will play around with low key for the time being.
Low key creates that very intricate chiaroscuro effect. Pronounced as Kee Ahr Uh Skyoor Oh. Meaning a distribution of light and shade in a photo.
From my understanding, whenever a flash is used in the photography equation, we would have basically 2 exposure reading. One from the flash itself and another the ambient exposure. In Low key, we only want the flash to partially illuminate the subject whereas the background will be darken by the small aperture. There are other ways to achieve such effect, I only tried one type due to limited space in my home.
Low key creates that very intricate chiaroscuro effect. Pronounced as Kee Ahr Uh Skyoor Oh. Meaning a distribution of light and shade in a photo.
From my understanding, whenever a flash is used in the photography equation, we would have basically 2 exposure reading. One from the flash itself and another the ambient exposure. In Low key, we only want the flash to partially illuminate the subject whereas the background will be darken by the small aperture. There are other ways to achieve such effect, I only tried one type due to limited space in my home.
Use low ISO, tripod needed, ability to light up the room and darken at will. Meaning use the light switch ler. Turn on the light to focus, and turn off for the effect. You camera must be in manual mode. Off camera flash is needed. I use my trusty radio frequency trigger to trigger the flash. Very handy tool. I recommend those budding strobist to get it.
Turn the flash to 1/64 or 1/32 power for the partial lit subject effect.
