Moving On July Challenge - The dark side.

The challenge for July is all about low key lighting.

In renaissance painting, low key lighting is known as chiaroscuro (Italian for light - dark) and many famous painters have used this technique including Caravaggio and Rembrandt.

Whereas a high key image is light and airy, a low-key image is all about drama and mystery. You are aiming for moody with striking contrasts through reduced lighting, so shadows are key to this.

So what does this actually mean you need to do? Well you are looking for an image that is likely to have one main direction of light source. The easiest example is to imagine a person in a darkened room, with just a candle to light their face. That is the sort of look you are going for. However, it can be any subject and it can be day or night, the technique can be subtle or dramatic. It can be colour or mono, it is up to you.

It might help to look on the internet to see the sort of thing we are talking about and the Wikipedia page on chiaroscuro contains some good information on the subject and lists some photographers who are known for its use. Also see HERE and maybe this Google Image page

Not an easy subject to get to grips with but I am sure we will be all the better for trying!