Photography is and always has been about light. However, most of the time photographers’ goals are to shoot an image that has a balance between both dark and light tones. High key is one of the few exceptions to this.
High Key photography is the act of intentionally overexposing an image so that most of the image is bright and there are few shadows. I not so secretly really adore this style and mess around with it occasionally.
Below is a photo from this weekend of my brother and niece. I was wading without a reflector or flash and shooting into the sun, so I knew the background was going to be overexposed. I was okay with that because I like this effect for beach shots. To me it screams of summer sun.
High Key isn’t restricted to black and white images either. Here’s another full color image I captured earlier this year of my favorite model. He’s playing at the Providence Children’s Museum in the water room.
And then there is always time for the intentionally strange “arty” self-portrait.
Ann Leonard Photography 