High key black bellied plover

[Allan]

Taken this morning - it was quite cloudy. I thought any images I took would lack pop so I cranked up the exposure to gt a high key look.

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[dossy]

I really like it, Allan! It looks like an illustration.

 

[West]

Interesting, it's growing on me

 

[Mike Buckley]

I cranked up the exposure to gt a high key look.

If you haven't already experimented with taking a photo at normal exposure settings and then making the image high-key during post-processing, consider doing so. I prefer that method.

 

[Randy]

If you haven't already experimented with taking a photo at normal exposure settings and then making the image high-key during post-processing, consider doing so. I prefer that method.

Please explain

 

[Randy]

I like it except for the white part of the body makes the bird look like it has a head and feet only

 

[Allan]

I really like it, Allan! It looks like an illustration.

Glad you like it - it is different - I think it fits with the white bg.

Interesting, it's growing on me

I can see how at first glance it might just seem weird.

 

[Allan]

If you haven't already experimented with taking a photo at normal exposure settings and then making the image high-key during post-processing, consider doing so. I prefer that method.

I wanted something extreme. The cloudy day seemed to call for it.

 

[Allan]

I like it except for the white part of the body makes the bird look like it has a head and feet only

I did that on purpose. I was going for this look rather than a photo of a bird. I had thought of posting it in the abstract forum.

 

[Mike Buckley]

If you haven't already experimented with taking a photo at normal exposure settings and then making the image high-key during post-processing, consider doing so. I prefer that method.

Please explain

If you capture an image at a normal exposure of a scene that you wouldn't call a high-key or low-key scene, you can then change it to a high-key or low-key style by any post-processing technique you prefer. One of the basic methods is to alter the tone curve. As an example, the scene might have a small area of dark tones that so nicely anchors the high-key image that you want to retain them. In that situation, you would ensure that the tone curve retains those tones but you might change the mid tones to highlights and increase the highlights so they intentionally lose detail. That method might produce better results than over exposing the scene and darkening part of it to produce that one small area of dark tones.

Not sure I explained it well. I learned that technique years ago on another forum that was discussing the definition of high-key and low-key images. (That was also when I stopped calling an image high-key or low-key because I realized there are so many definitions people use that I realized there really is no industry standard about use of the terminology.)

 

[Allan]

If you have color efex pro there is a high key filter. Here is a "regular" image and one where I applied the filter.

 

[Butlerkid]

If you have color efex pro there is a high key filter. Here is a "regular" image and one where I applied the filter.

I like this high key because there is a hint of definition on the underside of the bird, separating it from the water. Also, the rocks in the foreground add context, while the rocks in the backgrounds are barely visible.

 

[Allan]

I like this high key because there is a hint of definition on the underside of the bird, separating it from the water. Also, the rocks in the foreground add context, while the rocks in the backgrounds are barely visible.

Thanks Karen. Perhaps I should have posted that instead of the original but I still like that "abstracty" one.

 

[Allan]

Not doing anything this afternoon --- i thought I would go back to thsi image and make a few adjustments based on comments

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[Mike Buckley]

I can't begin to tell you how much nicer this works for me, simply because I can see the details of the bright body and its separation from the background.

 

[Allan]

You know, I agree now. But when I first worked on it I liked the concept of what I was doing so much I lost sight of the end result. Thanks for relying to this old thread.