High-key photography: A Few of my Favourites – Londolozi Blog

High-key photography, what is this? A basic explanation of a high-key image is an image in which the lighting ratio is reduced, or more simply put, an image in which bright lighting is used to reduce dark shadows. This can either be done while taking the actual photograph by purposefully overexposing the image, or enhanced through post-processing. Apart from being a sought-after effect, purposefully overexposing, and therefore shooting in high-key is sometimes the most effective method to take photos because of the factors placed in front of the lens. I’ll start out by using two examples to best explain what I am trying to describe.

A pretty young playful female found along the river to the east of camp

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By setting my exposure compensation to +1, the background of the photograph is blown out. This also eliminates the dark shadows of the leopard and tree in the foreground that would otherwise be very dark as the camera is picking up light from the whole scene, and not just the subject.

Before:

The Kangela Male ascending a marula tree- unedited!

A supremely relaxed male leopard, roaming a nomadic journey for the time being.

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In the above scenario, I couldn’t afford to purposefully overexpose and therefore shoot in high key. That would have resulted in my shutter speed being too slow to capture a sharp image of the leopard ascending the tree (and therefore the subject being blurry given the low light conditions). The dark shadows however render the leopard and tree’s detail unappreciated so post-processing was necessary to achieve the desired effect.

After:

The Kangela Male ascending a marula tree- edited

I could very easily have kept the photograph in colour, however, a monochrome high-key edit is often more appealing to the viewer (that’s the case for me at least…). By significantly increasing the shadows of the leopard and the tree, one can appreciate their texture and beauty. I also lifted the exposure of the sky to get a white background and the result is a black and white high key image.

During the Summer months at Londolozi, overcast conditions often prevail, especially during the morning game drives. These conditions are well suited for shooting in high-key and my camera’s memory card is littered with subjects (mostly leopards and birds) that have bright backgrounds. In this photographic blog post, I’d like to share with you some of my favourite High-key images that I have taken both recently and over the last year or so. I hope you like what you see!

Birds:

Whether birds are flying or perched in a tree (or simply very tall in the case of ostriches!), they will often have bright skies behind them making shooting in high key or lifting shadows to reduce the lighting ratio applicable.

While driving through the open grasslands of southwestern Londolozi, we came across a family of ostriches that allowed us to get close enough to snap this highly detailed high-key shot.

A Yellow-billed Kite overhead was making the most of a termite emergence, as were the swallows that are out of focus in the background 

Vultures tend to use dead trees, or trees with no foliage to roost in. With their large wing spans the foliage and branches would make landing and taking off more tricky, so photographic opportunities in trees like this almost always ensure that the background is open and bright allowing for a high-key edit.

An adult male bateleur perched in the high reaches of a dead leadwood tree

Leopards:

Known for climbing trees or perching on termite mounds for a better vantage point, shooting leopards in high-key can be very effective.

The Mawelawela Male rests in an open marula tree, this sighting was already unusual as this male is normally unrelaxed and would usually have descended the tree and hidden in the grass. On this occasion he didn’t and allowed me to take this image in the fading light.

Began as a fairly unrelaxed leopard in the southwestern parts of the reserve. Now providing great viewing in the open grasslands

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Just highlighting the diversity of high-key images here is another one from the same scene where the leopard is in colour but with a blown-out background.

The Ngungwe Female perches regally in a dead knobthorn tree and looks back towards a nearby herd of impalas

Once content with what was going on around her, the Ngungwe Female descends the dead tree to rest in the shade nearby.

Young inquisitive beautiful female, bordering on independence as of November 2021

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A dominant male leopard over the majority of the north. He originally took over the 4:4 Male’s territory when he died.

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A couple of others for good measure:

Zebras being black and white often make for great subjects in a monochrome image as the contrast is accentuated.

Klipspringers will almost always be perched above eye-level on a boulder with a clear background making shotting in high-key an easy task

Let me know which high-key photograph is your favourite and why in the comments below!