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This article is part of the ‘Portrait Lighting For Beginners’ series. This series is meant to help you go from a beginning photographer to making beautiful portraits.

Image by Chakoo

Low key lighting is perhaps my favorite style of studio lighting. There’s just something about the mood and drama that is created when you have a dark background with the subject standing out against it. Combine this lighting with some creative and dramatic posing and you have the power to create images that will be cherished for generations.

The Setup

The idea behind low key lighting is simple: dark tones, minimal lighting, and emphasis on certain areas of the subject. This is the perfect lighting setup for those of you with just one light, because single light portraits look great in this lighting scheme. While I have several lights with me on any given portrait session, when I get going on the low key setup, usually all get turned off but one. If I do use more than one light, it’s usually just to fill in a little bit of shadow detail so that the image isn’t too contrasty.

To set up a low key shot, get yourself a dark background. It doesn’t have to be black, though most low key images you see do have a black background. But anything dark will do. Next, get your subject in some dark clothing. Again, it doesn’t have to be black, just dark. What this will do is put emphasis on your subject’s face.

When you set up your key light, keep it off to the side of the subject. To start with, go for a 45 degree setup (click for more), then fine tune from there to fit your tastes. Keeping your key light off to one side will keep the light on the subject without lighting up the background too much. To help darken it even more, feather the light away from the background. Just rotate it further away until the subject is just on the edge of the light. If you find that the shadow side of the subject is just too dark, try filling it in with another light or a reflector.

Adding Accent Lights

While I’m not a big fan of using extra lights in a low key photo, you certainly can try more to see what you like. Don’t be afraid to experiment with hair lights, kickers, or rim lights. Used in the right way these lights can really add to a low key image.

Tips

• Do your best to nail the exposure. There are fewer levels of detail in the darker end of digital images, so if you have to bring the exposure up using software, you could get a little bit of posterization. Getting proper exposure is extra important in low key lighting.
• Watch out for the hands. Like the subject’s face, those hands will draw your attention because they are bright. Keep them out of the frame or keep the light off of them and you’ll keep them from being distracting. Unless of course you’re doing a shot of the hands like the photo above.
• Try a snoot or grid. This allows you to narrow the beam of light on your subject, really drawing attention to his face while the light falls off elsewhere. This is a great way to add some drama. If you’re using a Speedlight and want a cheap and easy way to make your own grid, check out this little tidbit from Strobist.
• When you post-process your low key images, try them in black and white. These images look great processed this way.
• This is a great lighting scheme to use when you want to help make your subject look thinner.

So what do you think? Ready to add your low key shots to the reader photo pool? You know you want to…