highkey vs lowkey

High Key Lighting is a way of lighting your image with low contrast and minimized shadows. It creates an upbeat, bright, and easy-going mood. This type of lighting is used for television, movie sets, and advertisements most often. We had a white back drop and bright lights more spaced apart for these images.

Low Key Lighting is a way of lighting your image with high contrast and harsh shadows.

It creates a dramatic and gloomy mood. This type of lighting is used for dramatic portrait photography or anything you want to capture with emotion. We had multiple hard lights set up shining lights on the subject directly.

The first three photos of Ixchel use low-key lighting whereas the last photo of the piggyback uses high-key lighting.