Hi-key and Low-key
 

Can anyone explain the diffrence between Hi-key and "Overexpoesed" an Low-key and "Underexposed". I am a bit confused because I se a lot of under- and overexposed pictures.

My definition (which may or may not be correct, but it works for me) Is that high key involves bright coloured subjects with a bright coloured background, exposed so that the histogram is mostly over to the right WITHOUT GOING OVER THE EDGE, with the opposite being true for low key.

[quote=PaulMontgomery;5231]My definition (which may or may not be correct, but it works for me) Is that high key involves bright coloured subjects with a bright coloured background, exposed so that the histogram is mostly over to the right WITHOUT GOING OVER THE EDGE, with the opposite being true for low key.[/quote]


The way it was taught to me is

High-key is when the tones in a photo are predominately highlights, it is over exposed when the details in the highlights are clipped (burnt out)

the opposite is true for low-key the tones are predominately Dark and its under exposed when the detail in the shadows is lost (blocked out)


Ed

Basically it's high key if it looks good and it's overexposed if you don't like it. The opposite is also true!