How to Shoot & Edit High Key Photos for Landscapes with a Unique Look (VIDEO)
The typical goal of most landscape photographers is to capture an image with a broad range of tonal values, with properly exposed highlights, dramatic shadows, and everything in between. This tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel demonstrates a different style that will really make your images stand out from the crowd.
High key photography is a unique stye that eliminates shadows and emphasizes bright tones to create dreamy images with minimal contrast and an ephemeral look. Instructor Christian Mohrle is a highly acclaimed landscape photographer and post-processing expert based near beautiful Lake Constance in Southern Germany—and a favorite among Shutterbug readers.
Today’s nine-minute episode demonstrates everything you need to know about capturing high key images in the camera and enhancing them in Lightroom—thereby adding a moody new style to your repertoire. Winter is the perfect time to experiment with this approach, especially when a snow-covered scene is complemented with cloudy gray skies.
Misty mornings and bright sandy beaches are also great subjects for this uncommon technique. Be sure to download Mohrle’s sample Raw file so you make the Lightroom adjustments yourself as they’re explained. His take on the versatile concept is this: “In essence you’re trying to create a minimalist image that feels clean and harmonious with highlights that are almost overwhelming.
Image capture is the first thing on the agenda, and Mohrle demonstrates why the camera’s histogram is an essential tool. Mohrle recommends shifting the graph as far to the right as possible without totally blowing out the shot. You may have heard this technique referred to as UTTR, an acronym for “expose to the right.”
Mohrle also describes the benefits of slower shutter speeds (even if you have to increase ISO), and why an aperture setting of f/11 to f/16 is helpful for maintaining sharpness within acceptable limits. He also displays several of his high-key images for a bit of inspiration.
The remaining portion of the lesson reveals a simple post-processing workflow that further enhances the look of high-key imagery. Mohrle begins with a few global adjustments to the entirety of the frame, thereby creating the best possible base image for the localized enhancements that follow,
Mohrle explains how to employ masks to modify different portions of the photo, independently of one another, for achieving a perfectly balanced result. He concludes the impressive transformation with a bit of thoughtful color grading and very judicious sharpening. There’s much more to learn about capturing and editing landscape photos on Mohrle’s instructional You Tube channel.
And don’t miss our recent tutorial with a contrary approach that relies upon a Midtone Contrast post-processing trick for adding more punch to landscape photographs that appear dull and washed out.
