Lill The Retired Rescued Racing Greyhound (Click to enlarge)
I think it’s just about time to show you another beautiful Greyhound. Meet Lill. Lovely against this backdrop. Although I occasionally like to shoot low key shots of black dogs on black backdrops, I think this orange-ish backdrop with black dogs is very nice. In the event you don’t know, low key means to have your dark subject (humans would wear dark clothing) on a dark backdrop or setting. You might even underexpose for drama. The opposite is true for high key.
If you are not using lights in a studio, you can reproduce this effect by surrounding your subject with a dark background and use any ambient light. Try this with your sleeping cat or dog lying on a dark blanket or sheet. Choose Aperture Priority mode, and start with higher numbers such as f16, increasing your depth of field and effectively closing the aperture, therefore less light. You may want to try this on a tripod, as the shutter speed your camera picks may be too slow to hold. The priority setting is for you to see what the “correct” exposure is. Now you can switch to manual and close out more light to get the low key effect. The opposite is true for high key.
Try some high and low key shots and post them here for us to discuss.
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