High Key Situations

So I've spoken about various techniques to help a low light photo-shoot, but I haven't written anything about shooting in very bright situations. It's one of the things most people forget when it comes to photo-shoot  extremes, but can actually be extremely difficult.

When I say bright situations, I don't mean a nice summers day, I'm talking high key, white on white or just too many highlights and not enough shadows. The problem generally arrives when you have a very light coloured background, like a white wall, and light penetrating everything evenly, leaving little to no shadow areas. Because there are no shadows, the usual techniques (ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture) become redundant as a technique. Obviously, being a photographer, these 3 things should be in your mind anyway.

So as we all know, small aperture (F/11 or smaller) and a fast shutter speed with an ISO of around 100. Now that will have you shooting, but images may appear flat or just blown out. So what can you do to give some depth and contrast in your images?

If you are in a studio with a model/client, ask them to bring a variety of clothes, select the darker shades of clothing to make the subject pop. Understandably, this is not always possible, so what do we do?

A rather confusing technique to counteract abundant light is to add more light...the trusty ol' hot-shoe flash is the man for the job. To do this, is actually pretty simple. Play around with your settings and try to get the outcome rather dark, not a black frame, but fairly underexposed. Use the flash to create highlights, this might mean turning it, or bouncing the light so it isn't head on.

Composition is also very important in situations like this, try to find little objects or positions that give depth to the image, something either in front of or behind the subject.

It might be worth noting that the background can be burnt out later, so shoot with this in mind; don't miss a shot because you are worried about the light. High key images can often be a nightmare to edit, if the highlights are blown then recovering data from the image (burning) can sometimes be tricky, and leave the edited area insanely noisy and noticeable.

A good rule of thumb is it is always better to be under-exposed than over-exposed. Often, i find myself struggling to find that perfect exposure point, shooting in raw means i can always keep the shoot under-exposed and edit them later; quite frequently it turns out the reason i couldn't find the exposure i had in mind was because the contrast in the light was not strong enough, or something of that nature. So never get frustrated while shooting if you can't seem to nail down what you want, just make sure the exposure isn't blowing out any highlights, and keep shooting, take advantage of  post-production technology.
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