Workdays are Sometimes Eighteen Hours
Working from home has some benefits like occasional showers, working in your shorts, anytime naps, and more. But it also compells us to work endlessly, stopping only for meals and bathroom breaks. Ah, how some long for the land of cubicles.
Assignment
We try to expose you to many genres of photography throughout the year's 52 challenges, and low key is a favorite for many photographers. If dark and moody is your thing, pay attention. Let's get down to basics right off the bat: when you shoot low key, try to use more dark tones than light - the opposite of what we were trying to achieve in high key. It doesn't mean you under expose your photo (though you certainly may choose to do that), but you intentionally darken the tones, and you can do that from the start with your use of lighting and choice of background. If you're totally lost, begin with a black background, and the histogram will be left-heavy. You can build from there with your lights and shadows as you explore the edges and curves that appear. And if you are stuck at home, remember low key is as simple as catching a person with sunlight on their face while indoors. This would create a low key image. If all you have is a phone camera, this will make it pretty doable for you. Words to think about when shooting might be: dark, moody, dramatic, high contrast, and shadows. Settings to think about when shooting will be: fast shutter, low iso, and low aperture (f-stop). Don't feel you must limit yourself to a black-and-white photo, though. There are great uses of light and shadow in low-key color photos, too!
