High Key Lighting - Work Diary

For this session we looked into the technique of high key lighting. I have used high key lighting in shoots before but I have never thought about the technique itself and never experimented with it.  This influenced my focus for this task - I wanted to focus more on experimenting with the lighting and set up of the shoot than the actual pictures I took. I wanted to gain more experience in setting up a shoot and learn how to create good quality photographs with high-key lighting. I feel that I was successful in following my goals for this shoot as I definitely have more knowledge in setting up a shoot for high-key lighting and now know how to perfectly set up lights for this technique.

This was my favourite photograph from the shoot. I feel that it is a great example of high-key lighting and that the image is vibrant and bold without the use of bright colours. As the background exposure was one stop higher than the foreground, it appears whiter and pulls all of your focus to the girl. This is exactly what I wanted from my images.

This was an image I did not like. When I begun my shoot, I had trouble getting my pictures at the right exposure and my images were coming out misty and therefore out of focus. The image above is an example of that. This was because my lens was dirty and I hadn't realised - once I cleaned it, I encountered no problems. But, this meant that my first few photographs were unusable.

Progression

If I use high-key lighting again, I will ensure that my lens is cleaned as this majorly interfered with my shoot in the beginning. I will also try to incorporate more colours into my images as I focussed too much on whites during this shoot. I will also try and conduct a shoot where I focus on the actual images rather than the technique now that I have come to grips with it.

Can I use this in my project?

Whilst I had not planned on using this in my project as I am doing photo documentary, I could explore this technique alongside my current plan and I could use it to document the styles and fashions of youth culture today.