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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.

Photo by cloudnine

You now know how to create low key portraits using dark tones. Now you’re ready to move on to mid key portraits. Mid key lighting is simply lighting so that the overall tones in the photograph are somewhere in the middle. Not too dark and not too bright. That’s it. To make your portrait model stand out, you’ll want her to be the brighter part of the image.

Like low key lighting, this style of lighting lends itself nicely to one light portraits. Sure you can use more lights and reflectors if you want to, but you don’t have to. You can position your subject and key light in such a way that the light hits both the subject and spills on to the background. Because your subject will be closer to the light, she will automatically be brighter than the background, attaining the look you want.

Backgrounds

Photo by johnlewis1513

And while we’re on the subject of backgrounds, don’t be afraid to experiment. Just because you’re creating a mid toned portrait doesn’t mean you have to have a mid toned background. Put a white background far enough away from the light and you’ll get a gray background. Pump enough background light onto a black background and you’ll also get a gray background.

And here’s another tip for those of you using one light. If you want to darken the background, simply move the light closer to the subject and adjust your exposure. If you want to lighten the background, move the light further away and adjust your exposure. I know this may seem counterintuitive to lighten a background by moving the light further away, but it makes sense once you understand the laws of light.

Mid key lighting is one of the easier lighting schemes to understand and use. Unlike low key portraits, you don’t have to worry about getting those blacks black. And unlike high key lighting (up next), you don’t have to worry about getting those whites white. You can be on the fence if you will, unwilling to take a side. As long as you get it in the middle, you’re good to go.

So what do you think? Ready to add your mid key shots to the reader photo pool?