
Olympus Stylus Epic + Kodak Portra 400 + 35/2.8
Last week we showcased high-key photography, therefore it makes sense to showcase low-key photography this week, an example of which you can see above.
For low-key imagery, we’re basically reversing the process that we had the last week. Instead of boosting the highlights to make a light, ethereal looking photograph — we emphasize the shadow tones to make a dark, moody, and very dramatic looking photograph. More specific descriptions of low-key photography can be found here, and thumbnails of other low-key images can be found here. The biggest takeaway is that the light source should be very directional and from a single source; however, low-key images can be captured in the great outdoors as well, provided that the lighting conditions are suitable.
Here’s how I created this image. Select your target file and open it within Adobe Lightroom. In this case, it’s a shot I took mid-morning this past Sunday using a point-and-shoot film camera:
As you can see, it’s a far cry from looking like a low-key image — but that’s okay, because the lighting is perfect for this challenge. The image has tremendous depth to it due to the fog, and the lighting is very flat — which will help us paint the canvas as we want it to look.
First we process the image to normal parameters:
Then — in the Basic panel — go to the top of the Treatment section and convert the image to Black & White:
And now we play with the settings of the Tone Curve. The end results will vary from image to image (I played with the Tone Curve on this shot for about an hour), but in this case my final Tone Curve settings were as follows:
- Highlights: -7
- Lights: -80
- Darks: -84
- Shadows: -100
Since source file is in full color, I can emphasize the monochrome tones in certain areas by simply adjusting the various colors under the Black & White Mix, like so:
This is looking pretty decent, so I’ll do the retouching now. The white circles represent all the areas that I touched up with the Spot Removal (on some images this can add another hour or two of work to the image, even if it’s a digital shot):
Now it just needs a little Clarity from the Presence section of the Basic panel, and — voilà! — this image is completed.
As you can see, creating a low-key image is even easier than creating one in high-key — and far more versatile and less trendy looking. So here’s the challenge: find or create a low-key image of your own, and go through the same step-by-step process I outlined here to produce your own dramatic photograph.
Once you’ve finished, be sure to include “#photo101rehab”, “#photorehab”, and “#imagecraftbootcamp” with your normal tags — and if you wish to submit it to the Flickr group (we’ve already got seven people who have joined us), you’ll need to post it there as well (https://www.flickr.com/groups/imagecraft_bootcamp/).
Here are the pioneers of the Image Bootcamp:
Julie Powel at Photographer and Graphic Artist
Lisa at Gray Days and Coffee
Andy at Andy Townend
Terri Duncan at Beespeak
Carlo Matriano at the Digital Painter
Good luck, and see you next Wednesday!
Another great challenge, looking forward to having a go at this one very soon!
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The real challenge is to achieve this effect with a camera 😉
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Indeed. I’d say about 1 percent or less of my shots are to that level — if I’m lucky.
How about yourself? Are you able to create images that are perfect in-camera? 😉
So what I’m trying to do here is help people make their photos — whatever skill level they may be — look the best that they can make them. There is no substitute for a decent image, but many times they can be improved with some adjustments in post-production.
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Yes I’m working on this and my changes are not much visible. In the case of this image – the in-camera version was very beautiful. You can wait for a minute and to take it without the car in the frame. But for the noir like image you can always reduce the ability of light with exposure compensation or just to remember the current exposure and to move to M mode and to shoot again with less ISO or faster shutter. But of course all ways are great and everyone love his “the best” way.
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Good for you, Victor! I very much look forward to seeing your image. As you say, there are lots of ways to achieve this look, and each to his own.
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Indeed ! Thank you !
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Low.key can be fun and there’s a lot of nice examples in the link. I don’t know if you have Photoshop, but I think it would have been quicker to use the dust& scrathes filter in Photoshop rather than the spot removal in Lightroom.
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Undoubtedly there are a ton of different tools out there for photographers to use — some are automated and others are close to it. However, I think that most readers here are trying to simply do the best they can for as little effort, time, and money as they can manage — I suspect a number of them may not even have Lightroom and may try to use Picasa, Gimp, Elements, or iPhoto instead.
I plan to eventually post about using Photoshop, but that’s still a long way into the future.
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Really great work – I’m an old huge Alfred Hitchcock supporter – at the first pic I allready was on my way back into his stories… 😀
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And “noir” is already part of your handle… 😀
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Such a haunting image. I can just imagine a character walking down that lonely road, into the fog… the perfect opening. 🙂
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It was very fleeting; one moment everything was only a little foggy in the far distance, then the next moment everything was enveloped in the thicker fog, which lasted only a minute or two at most. Glad you liked it. 🙂
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I love these hauntingly beautiful photos. Well done! ❤
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Thank you, ma’am!
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Here’s my contribution…
http://andytownend.com/2015/09/24/low-keyed-horse/
great prompt again!
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Great job, Andy!
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Thank you Mitch, I like this new group, good to feel stretched and see some great work from the team!
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Hold onto your hat — I’m going to kick it into overdrive with the next post! 🙂
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Better dig out the manual for my D700 then…. 😉
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Oooohhh yeeeeeah… You might even want to get the Nikon support number on speed dial, for when the D700 starts crying “uncle”! 😀
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Bring it on!
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Be careful what you ask for… you may get it! 😀
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ha!
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OK…this is what happened today. I read this, and you said something like select your photo and open it in Adobe LightRoom. One of those ah-ha moments. At least now I know how to get the photo INTO LightRoom. I opened one in LR to see what was what. Then got lost. And it seemed difficult to control what I was applying with those little arrows. I need a guidebook, maybe. Plus…do I have that many hours to spend on a photo? Hmmmm…
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It doesn’t have to be Lightroom; it can be another photo editing package of your choosing, but I don’t have in-depth knowledge of other packages.
If I made the posts inclusive of all the photo editors out there, it would make each post of the series too large and unwieldy to deal with.
Admittedly, a lot of people don’t like doing a lot of post-processing, but your photos can really sing if you do so.
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I think I want to use LR…
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Okay! Well, keep reading then; everything that I’m going to be covering will include the use of Lightroom and Photoshop, though the latter will be quite awhile from now.
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cool
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So much effort you have put in! I wish I could do like that!
Very lovely composition. Leading all the way to the subject.
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Thank you. The effort for this series is in producing the content of the post and responding to comments; everything else is like what I do normally for all of my images.
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You are indeed very dedicated 🙂
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Photography is a very big part of my life; if I’m going to share my images with the world, I want them to be the best I’m capable of producing. 🙂
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Yes, after going through your blog I came to realize that. You are a true professional 🙂
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Thank you very much for your kind words; I appreciate them.
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My pleasure 🙂
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I simply can’t resist sharing this one and seeing what you think, this is “as shot” not a single edit, the light was to die for….
http://andytownend.com/2015/09/26/low-keyed-tree/
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Awesome shot! It’s great when you get an image straight out of the camera that doesn’t need anything done to it, eh? 🙂
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Thank you, it doesn’t happen very often!!
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you succeeded in this it looks super scary the black and white, my mind boggled, suddenly thinking up stories of who was in the car or not! Had they gone running through the woods, who was chasing them? Sheesh I have not even had coffee yet lol x
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Too funny. 😀
That’s our minivan, and the two of us are out of it and behind the camera, where we were just strolling through the area enjoying the moody dampness of the foggy morning. See? Nothing to be charged up about!
Now go have your coffee… 😀
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haha thank you, oh well the mind wanders sometime, most people need the caffeine to make it wander lol xx
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The image has an ethereal feel to it. Sometimes it is hard to capture this in a photo. fantastic.
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Thanks. My jaw dropped when I first began to post-process it; it was much more than I could have hoped for.
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The best images tend to be unexpected. It awesome when it comes out even better than expected. You just have a feel about the place. Take care.
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Agreed. I’m always on the lookout for the unexpected. 🙂
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