PORTRAIT LIGHTING (High Key)

As you can see the subject has turned her head away from the camera. It is important that you monitor the light falling on the face. Had she faced the camera it would have been necessary to bring the Soft box round toward the camera.

High key portraiture started to become very popular, just before I decided to withdraw from professional work . Soft low key portraits began to appear in studio window displays. High key was not new, it worked well with Black and White and many photographers in the 30s and 40s used the techniques. These days there is little else, some of the examples I see are excellent and some quite awful.

On occasions photographers attach the term "high key" to any photograph taken on a white background, but I feel there is much more to a high key portrait than just the background. The lighting needs to be very precise and this is often neglected in some portraits. Subjects need to be advised on the right clothes to wear, even the makeup a lady uses can affect the end result.

Vignettes are often used badly, fading a poorly lit background to white, or in some extreme cases a dark background is used which really degrades the quality of the finished print. Vignettes should be subtle and the effect should not be noticeable. A Vignette was used in the low key tutorial to help the background fade to jet black, but I think you will agree it does not notice in the picture. The same should apply to white vignettes, if you can see the edge of the vignette, it didn't work.

My lighting very seldom changed, which allowed me to produce consistent results, essential if you are not printing yourself. With digital images one can be a little more ambitious, although "If it ain't broke?" Don't make life hard for yourself, you need to concentrate on the subject, not worry that the lighting and exposure are accurate.

So how is it done?
You will need a white background, or at least a very pale pastel colour. In the example shown I also used a white muslin tent or drape. Using a drape broke up the plain backdrop and added a further element of softness and texture to the picture. One can also add subtle coloured lights on the background but do be careful they don't overpower the main lights.

As in the low key, the soft box (1mtr square) was set to produce f8 and the fill was set at f5.6 only one stop less than the main light. This still allows for a shadow, but less dramatic. A white reflector added to punch some of the light back. A black stocking over the lens and the camera exposure was 1/30th at f8. 160 ASA film. The vignette effect was done at the printing stage. On digital images this can be carried out with PhotoShop by using the eraser, set on about 15% to give you control.

Please don't fall in to the trap of thinking you can over expose the image to produce the high key effect, it don't work! There is no substitute for a correctly exposed image, film or digital. Using the lighting set up I have described there is no reason why you should not be able to produce very good results. However, you may need to experiment with the balance of the main and the fill. Also if you are shooting groups of three or more subjects the lighting will need to be a little more even, so pull the main light toward the front a little more.

Good luck......