High Key Lighting Photography

The Magazine For Photographers
Nov 11
3 min read

What Is High-Key Lighting?

High-key lighting is a style where everything in your photo, so the subject, background, and shadows, is evenly lit and bright. You reduce contrast as much as possible, so there are few (if any) deep shadows. In the end you get a photo that feels light, fresh, minimal in a sense, and often very polished.

A lot of times you see it in fashion, beauty and product photography, but it also works outdoors, especially for landscapes and nature shots (a lot of photographers like to do high key bird photography for example)

How It Works

The main idea behind high-key lighting is to flood the scene with light, but in a controlled way. You don’t want to just overexposing everything, you are trying to balance the light so the whole scene feels bright but still has shape and depth. You are trying to lift shadows rather than erase them (that is the key differentiator, which in turn won’t make your photos look washed out).

The Setup

If you are shooting indoors or in a studio, this is the classic setup:

A big key light, usually a softbox or umbrella in front of your subject.
A fill light or reflector on the opposite side, to brighten any remaining shadows.
A background light, aimed at your white backdrop to make sure it stays pure white instead of grey.

—> Make sure your background is a bit brighter than your subject (around +1 stop). That is what gives you the clean, white look instead of dull greys.

Camera Settings (Indoors)

Aperture: f/4 to f/8
ISO: Keep it pretty low (100–400)
Shutter speed: Match it to your lighting setup (1/125–1/200s if you are using flash).
White balance: Set it manually because auto can sometimes make the whites too warm or grey.