How To Shoot Low-Key Images With Any Camera

Have you ever seen those photos where the main subject is lit up against a relatively dark background? We all have, and those kind of images tend to be very pleasing to the eye of most beholders and they are also memorable as well. They are referred to as low-key images because the overall tone of the image is fairly dark and in the low light range.

So how does a photographer get that kind of shot? It takes planning and a good set of circumstances if you are an outdoor photographer. In the studio, you can control the light any way that you wish and produce whatever lighting combination that you wish if you have the right kind of equipment.

But outdoor photography presents much more of a challenge to get these low-key images. The main light source is usually the sun and you can't just move it around to get the look you want. In addition, if your main subject is an animal, you can't expect them to go where you want them to go and pose as you would like. In fact, they do that on rare occasions, which is often frustrating.

But if you think about your shot beforehand, you can look for circumstances where low-key shots are possible. These kind of situations usually involve some kind of side-lighting where the main subject is clearly exposed by the sun, but the background is in shadow. 

Low-key shots are also more possible when your main subject is a bright color like white or yellow and the background is a darker color. Our camera helps us to create a low-key image in this situation because it is restricted to capturing a range of only 8-9 stops of light in any one image, whereas our eye is capable of seeing a much higher range of light. So, if your main subject is lit well and is bright, that automatically makes the background appear darker in comparison when the camera captures the image.

These kind of opportunities don't come along all the time, but you will be surprised how often you can design a low-key image if you are simply looking for the right circumstances and change your camera angle to produce that kind of image.

Here is a couple of examples of low-key images that was produced in normal sunlight using the techniques discussed above:

Snowy egret

Yellow daisy

Little blue heron

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