High Key vs. Low key

[Aaron Solomon]

Does high key vs. low key lighting refer to the intensity of the lights in general, or the angle at which the key light is placed?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Refers to the ratio of Key light to Fill Light. For example a High Key Lighting has a smaller ratio of key to fill (they are closer in terms of luminance) than does Low Key. For High Key, you might be at a 2:1 ratio, wherein the Key Light is 2x as bright as the Fill (or 1 stop brighter). With Low Key, you may be at 8:1 or far higher!

 

It has naught to do with height.

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't think it's specifically about key-to-fill ratio, it's more about the overall effect.

 

"Low Key" means that the scene has a predominance of dark areas with very small amounts of highlights.

 

"High Key" means that the scene has a predominance of midtones and highlights with few dark areas.

 

Now of course often that means that a low key scene is high in contrast and a high key scene is low in contrast, but there are exceptions. You could have a light-toned set with with a single hard frontal key light, no fill, which would look high key and be high in contrast... and you could have a soft-lit, low-contrast scene that is very underexposed and dim and be considered low key.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Quite true, but I would still say that on the whole, it's closely related to contrast ratios. That's just me though.

[Aaron Solomon]

Thanks! So a high key image would have more bright spots?

[David Mullen ASC]

Thanks! So a high key image would have more bright spots?

 

Yes and no -- a night exterior could be low-key but have a number of bright spots in the frame surrounded by darkness. It's really more of an impression of the overall light quality, is the frame mostly well-illuminated at full exposure or does it feel on the dark side?

[Aaron Solomon]

And "well illuminated" = high key and "dark" = low key?

[Brian Drysdale]

And "well illuminated" = high key and "dark" = low key?

 

Traditionally comedy was high key and thrillers were low key.

[Aaron Solomon]

Traditionally comedy was high key and thrillers were low key.

 

 

Like the darkness and stark contrasts create suspense?

[David Mullen ASC]

I think you're trying too hard to nail down a vague term. It's more of an general impression of the scene as to whether it is low key or high key. A Hollywood musical like "Singin' in the Rain" would be considered high key whereas a movie like "Seven" would be considered low key. The issue is whether there is a pervasive feeling of lightness versus darkness in the imagery.