Last Updated on 04/27/2015 by Chris Gampat

What is High Key and Low Key lighting? The folks over at Adorama TV try to explain it to you in under three minutes. Dan in the video after the jump explains that high key lighting is when your lighting is very low contrast with almost no visible shadows. This is done often in portraiture and is very forgiving.
In comparison, low key lighting has very high contrast. It can make a subject really pop in a scene.
Dan’s video is after the jump, but we’ve added extra examples of High Key and Low key lighting after the jump.
High Key Lighting




Low Key Lighting


