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Creating With High Key

on Dec 16, 2014

Unfortunately as wildlife photographers, we can't always choose our light but we can manipulate situations and use them to our advantage. Overcast days are a perfect example of this as there is none of the beautiful golden light to work with. Instead, converting the image to black and white might be an option or you can attempt something a little more contemporary and try to do something in high key.

Leopard

In order to prepare yourself for the creation of a high key image you first need to over-expose the photo by about 2 stops so that it will be easier to post process into your new piece of contemporary art. All the post-production for the image can be done through Lightroom and will require a little time and patience. First thing you would do is convert it to black and white in Lightroom and then up the exposure a little more and crank up the contrast and clarity. Now that you have the basics done we start with the patience part.

Choose the adjustment brush and start painting the areas of little importance. Anything that may cause a distraction needs to be brushed and overexposed till only your subject is left. This will create a very minimalistic view of a beautiful subject and produce something a little out of the ordinary.

Expose your balance

Richard de Gouveia

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