Today we learned about two types of lighting.
High key lighting and low key lighting. High key lighting is what we learned about first. That’s the method of pictures with bright lighting. We went to the camera studio and they put down a white screen with big lights focussing on the subject. We all had a go at using the camera in this studio.
Low key lighting is the opposite. This is the method of much darker imagery. They got out a black screen with a lower lighting system. This method can be used for horror films/pictures or anything that’s meant to feature darkness. We also practiced using a camera to take pictures in this dark setting. I used to a fair amount of photography but this a side to it that I haven’t had much experience in. I enjoyed using these photographic techniques.
Here is a picture I took in the dark key lighting. I’m quite happy with how this picture turned out.
Here is another one I took that I’m not so happy with how it turned out. The way it’s chopped irritates me a lot and I’m sure that wasn’t my intention when I captured it. I didn’t even believe this was my photo when it was imported to the computer. I can’t believe I took one where his forehead is chopped. I feel like I must have moved the camera to the wrong place when I took this. I will say though that the picture quality and lighting is still top notch. It’s just in the wrong position. 
Below is a picture I took with the low key lighting. Overall I’m very satisfied with this picture, aside from one single flaw. You can see some of the wires on the side which is annoying. This could easily be edited out but it would be better to avoid that in the first place.
That flaw isn’t there in there in the picture below which makes it look much better. However, I do think the first one is a better picture, aside from the wires. In the second one they’re not smiling and it has a very ‘second photo’ look to it somehow.
Below you can see a video that explains (in greater detail) what the main differences between high key lighting and low key lighting really are.
The Film Student Diary 