[Jenna Spevack]

Take a 15 minute walk around City Tech. Using your camera or camera phone*, compose 2 photographs with the following value range:
Photo 1: predominately within the high-key value range
Photo 2: predominately within the low-key value range

Post your observations about each photo, with specific references to the images, indicating how the “key” sets the mood of the composition. Also notice and report how the forms in the composition create highlight and shadow relationships, some may be abrupt other may have a gradation of value from light to dark. How does this contribute to the expressive quality (mystery, drama, success, joy, etc) of the compositions?

* If you don’t have a camera, please partner with another student who does.

[Sean Nurse]

These are some images i took around school. There is somewhat high and low key in each.

[Lok Tung(Wanda) Tsang]

The first two pictures are high key and the last two pictures are low key.

For the first picture, the darkest shades are at the bottom and for the second picture, the darkest shades are at the bottom right corner.The main color of both pictures are in between light gray and white. Both pictures give me a feeling of joy because they are clean and bright.
I’m not sure for the third picture because the dark area cover most of the part but there is also a bright area in the middle that catch people’s attentions. But since there are more dark area in the picture, i assume it is a low key. For the fourth one, the darkest part is in the middle. The top left corner is a little bit lighter than all the other part of the picture. Both pictures give me a mysterious feeling.

[Jessica]

Below are two of my high keys and the last two pictures are my low key.

Wanda- You have two great high keys and can brightly see it without shadow.
The third picture could have been improved because to the right its a low key but then towards the middle pf the picture you can see that there is a hightlight of light directing the middle making it like a focus to look at . The very last one i like =] you have a low key picture there =]
Sean- You have a great choice of highkey picture =] I believe it the frist two great choice . However i feel like you could have choosen two better picture of highkey because the last one has a mixture of vaule. By this i mean that the there is direct sunlight towards the top and bottom of the telephone it has a dark shadow. The second picture if you have croped the whole bottom it would be a great hightkey point.But over all i say you have great highkey pictures maybe work on two low key.

[Yuliya Bas]

Jessica, you have really obvious high and low-keys, very nice :)

My high-keys are on top and the low-keys are on the bottom. For the first high-key, the darkest shades are at the very left, on the pipe and they get abruptly lighter where the reflective shine is. The focal point is the view between the pipes and that is the brightest value of the photo. This high-key sets a very calm mood with all the reflections and perpendicular piping. The second high-key has less contrast and more gradual shifts in value and has a slightly lonely/depressing mood to it.

The first low-key is somewhat ominous, partially because it’s reminds me of a crime-scene, sans the blood. The black-painted door shines and reflects the knob, which is more noticeably lighter in value, where the shine on the knob is the lightest. The second low-key is very claustrophobic and has very dark tones, with little changes in value. The darkest point is the corner, but it’s only slightly darker than the walls and floor around it.

[LimmeruBar]

i am really not the best photographer in the world i the second one is the high key and the first one is the low i like the second one the light hit it just right making it look creepy lol

[ligiaoro]

i dont know but its not letting me attach any files and im being trying form 2 computers ….

[JettoMaku]

The first one is my High Key. The second one is Low Key. Hope you guys like it :)

The High Key portrays the Bright area of the image. It gives a Cheery and Exciting mood making it stand out from the crowd. It seems like it is highlighted making it more special and important compared to the other parts. The white dots help represent the high key because it adds light and brightness other from the light.

The Low Key portrays the darker part of the image. It gives a gloomy and Shady mood making it seem to be sad and lonesome. This might also represent a quiet and relaxing feeling. And ironically the low key image had a library referenced. The low key doesnt seem to jump out from the picture and it doesnt seem to have much importance towards the images. It seems that low key is a supporting element when it comes to a picture and to me its the negative. Low Key also adds drama to the picture making it realistic.

[Jenna Spevack]

Anna and Yuliya, great observations!

Everyone else, please re-read the guidelines in the first post or on the class site:
http://profspevack.com/designcolor/course-documents/assignments/assignment-3/

“Post your observations about each photo, with specific references to the images, indicating how the “key” sets the mood of the composition. Also notice and report how the forms in the composition create highlight and shadow relationships, some may be abrupt other may have a gradation of value from light to dark. How does this contribute to the expressive quality (mystery, drama, success, joy, etc) of the compositions?”

[JettoMaku]

@Jessica – Excellent examples of High Key and Low Key. You can truly see how Low the image is. It is almost pure black. And your High Key shows a very high value. It really brightens up the image. I like the cloudy feel from your high key.

@Yulya – Your high key image is very nice. I like how the metallic material supports the light, giving it more high key values. And your Low Key is awesome. Especially that corner of corners, that thing is pure black. The image of the handle seems to me a mix of both low key and high key. High key being the handle and low key being the door. good job :)

[Jessica]

My highkeys are on the top and my top low keys are at the bottom.My frist highkey has a a bit of a darker value to the bottom left. It reminds me of the sand, also a solid rought texture. My seconf highkey picture is so smooth. You can see that on the top left it turns a little more darker and over all the color seems like a creamy color. It reminds me of somethin very soft and the focus point here is the middle where you seethe highlight in the center .

My two low keys are at the bottom. the frist one has a focus point which your eye caughts the line of white and you can see how dark the picture is. This picture sets a scary mood. It reminds me of a dark room and the door opening. You can always notice other types of vaule of darkness after the live. My second low key picture also sets off a mysteriuose and scray mood. It has a depth of darkness an dyou see the shadow that remind me of a solid floor with dots on the floor. Its a very creepy mood here. There is some light vaules of dark on the side making them highkey and towards the middle and top and left it turns in to this darkness of a cave type looking picture.

[Sean Nurse]

The two pictures of the oval shaped picture are very low key.

The other two pictures, one of the Brooklyn bridge and the other of a wall panel are very high key.

I thought I would upload some pictures that have less contrast and are better examples of high key and low key.

[julio]

first two are my highkeys
and bottom my lowkeys
[=

[ANDREWmorocho]

The first two are my low key images. Both are very sharp and contrasted between light and dark. The lights in both images set a very strong and powerful mood for them. In the first low-key image, the lights form a grid with the window frames. In the second low-key image, the lights make the image seem as if there was an echo because of the repetition and perspective. The blacks put emphasis on the white because it makes the light colors pop out more.

The last two images are my high key images. (It was a bit difficult searching for high key images since there are a lot of shadows everywhere because of the school’s lighting). I chose these to be my high key images because they’re not really contrasted like the first two. The mood is smooth and calm because all the colors seem to fade with each other in a slow motion. Unlike the low key images, these are very light and don’t have much shadows (and if they have shadows they aren’t very dramatic).

The high key images feel happy, and the low key images feel angry

[rodney j willis]

Within the four photos i took 2 of them i thought set high key simply because it dark color allowed the images to standout and primarily be seen on one side oppose to trying to figure out the concept and focal point of the image.I thought both images of the vendor machine were machine we’re strong and powerful because it stood out in a dark hall way within crowded people.i assumed it to be high key also because it seemed to draw a reflection,off the wall due to the dark environment it was in.

As far as the other two.I thought of it as low quality because it was sharp and it drew contrast between the light and dark.The light in the admisson wall as well as the the colored letter on the colored paper seemed to stand out and put repetition into the image