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How I Shoot: Lowkey Portrait

How I Shoot: Lowkey Portrait

Long time coming right? Yeah, but it’s here now so shush your mouth! I want to start fairly simple, something that anyone getting into the strobist side of photography could achieve with some pretty basic kit. Lowkey sprung to mind straight away — It’s easy to do with a single light & you can use just about any lens, especially since we don’t need to take advantage of a wide (low) aperture for a shallow depth of field. Oh also — I’ve done a video of the whole thing. It’s at the end of this post, it’s very amateur but maybe it will help you out… if not you can at least laugh at me!

Final Image Preview

Equipment List

  • Camera: Canon 50D

    Any dSLR will be fine.

  • Lens: Canon 50mm F/1.4

    But we aren’t taking advantage of the wide aperture so any lens with a similar focal length will work, even your kit lens.

  • Flashes: Canon 580ex

    Any flash that you can fire wirelessly will work.

  • Accessories: 1 light stand, 1 light bracket, 1 umbrella & a tripod.

    You don’t need a umbrella or any light modifier this shot could be done with a bare flash.

A Bit Of Planning

A bit of planning goes a long way! It’s always good to have a fair idea of what you want to achieve before you go out to do a shot, it’ll save you time when you are out in the wild. Sometimes I’ll even do child like drawings of the sort of thing I want to end up with, or very sketchy lighting diagrams, or even save similarly styled/lit shots to my iPhone so I can flick through them when I am out.

Also if possible grab a friend/spouse/co-worker/stranger in the street to pose for you, it’s a lot easier & quicker than doing it as a self portrait.

The Shoot

The first thing you need to know about a Lowkey shot like this is it does not need to be done at night, in fact doing it at night is a hell of a lot harder… how do you focus on something you can’t see!? I’m not saying you can do it in brilliant sunshine, but as long as the sun is setting or you are indoors you should be fine. I did this shoot at about 9:00pm & shot at a narrower (higher number) aperture to cut out the ambient light which, in this case, was the sun.

Finding a suitable location was easy for this one, I just needed somewhere with a bit of space. I could have found a giant car park with nothing in the backdrop, but I thought picking somewhere with walls behind my subject would give me a chance to talk a little bit about light to subject to backdrop ratios without going into the inverse square law.

The first thing I like to do when I get to a location is set up my kit roughly how I think I am going to use it. Then I start framing up my shot but I am not thinking about the lighting from my strobes just yet.

The light I want to focus on first is ambient light, which I want to completely eliminate. This is the easy part. First thing I do is make sure my ISO is set as low as it will go, then I set my shutter speed to the very fastest it will go with the triggers I am using. With my current triggers (RF-602′s) I can sync up to 1/200th of a second (FYI unless you can sync really fast shutter speed will not effect the strength of your flash). The fast shutter speed does a great job of getting rid of a lot of the sun light.

Then it’s all down to the aperture, starting with my aperture as wide as it will go, I progressively narrow it until I cut out all of the ambient light. This is where the histogram is particularly useful, if you aren’t familiar with histograms I recently did a small post explaining them. Every time I narrow my aperture I check the histogram until it tells me that all the light from the photo is gone. Kinda exactly like this:

The benefit of working like this is that you aren’t making your aperture any smaller than you absolutely have to, which means you won’t have to work your flash quite so hard. I started with my flash at 1/4 power for this shot, which left my subject a little underexposed & my backdrop was getting some light.

Boo! But don’t panic — this is pretty easy to fix. You have three options, the first & easiest is to turn the flash up & move the light out to the side of the subject so less light is pointing at the backdrop. Second, again turn your flash up & move everything further away from the backdrop, your subject, your lights, your camera, all of it. Third — hold on I need a new paragraph for this…

Unfortunately it’s not always possible to move away from your backdrop or you don’t want your lights out on the side; lucky for us there is something else we can do. If you move the light closer to your subject, lets say half the distance, you can actually then bring the power down by two stops while retaining the same level of exposure on your subject. Because your light is on a lower power the amount that gets to the back drop will be dramatically reduced. In fact if you started off with your light, subject & backdrop with even spacing in between them, your backdrop will be under exposed by about eight stops which should stop it from showing up all together!

If you aren’t getting it don’t worry, the best thing to do is just get out & try it out, it’s much easier to learn when you can see the results first hand. I’m also going to do a post about this sort of stuff soon to try & break it down a little more, do some funky diagrams, you know — all that good stuff.

After a little setup tweaking & turning my flash up to 1/2 power, I got exactly the sort of light I was looking for. I used an umbrella box for my light modifier on this shoot because I like the softness that comes with it. But you could have used a snoot for a bit more control or even done it with a bare flash. From that point I just rattled off a whole bunch of shots, getting Mikee to pull some shapes for me — what a pro. So this is my final image, which has had pretty much zero editing done to it, just a crop & tiny bit of desaturation.

How I Shoot: Lowkey Portrat

You can check this shot out on my Flickr where you’ll be able to check out the large version & see all the EXIF data… if that’s your kinda thing.

The Video

Yep… video’d the whole thing! I thought it might be helpful. Errr please note — this is the first time I have ever done anything like this, so it’s a little on the amateur side & the audio is a little quiet in places — sorry.

The End

If you’ve read all of this, thanks! It’s kinda long but I hope it’s helpful to at least a few people. Also if you’ve had a go at this, I’d love to hear about it. In fact it would be really awesome if you could post a link or preview of the photo in the comments!

Follow me on twitter to hear about my next post, which hopefully will explain stops in a clear & concise way.

I have made a Flickr Group so it’d be rad if anyone trying out this technique could add their photo to it. Or just join it to see what other people add.

Comments

Ashley

Waow. Great job at explaining how to shoot low key. It’s come at the perfect time for me as I gave it a bash a couple of days ago. This makes me want to try it again with better results. I’m a make use of the histogram. Anyway, I’ll be sure to show you what I come up with!

P.S. You can tell a good bit of effort went into this post, and it’s your best yet IMO.

Adam

Nice post Rick, been waiting ages for this and it didn’t disappoint! Well done and a great final shot. Really informative too!

I really wana have a go at this, but scared I will embarrass myself, ha! Looking forward to the next post, got a date for us?!

:)

Kyle

I agree with Ashley, this is also my favourite post so far :)

I’d try this, but the lack of owning a flash might come in the way haha

Jamie Thompson

Epic. This post is full of win. So well explained that even I could understand it. The video is orsum btw. Kthxbai.

Roger

Mate these are the posts! Really cool to see how its all done and in action.

Did you use the tripod out of habit of all those self portraits or?

Stu Greenham

Great post Rick!

Really find stuff like this very interesting as I am currently learning from scratch

Keep up the good work mate!

Mel

Beyond fantastic post, it was just what I was looking for to be honest and I feel like I can take this shot on now.
I’m still only a noob when it comes to my speedlite but hopefully I’ll get there!
I look forward to more awesome posts from you.

Rick

Ashley — Thanks :) yeah it took some time! But worth it!

Adam — Don’t be scared! Just do it, put it up and learn from the feedback you get. Drop me an email if you have trouble and I’ll help you out.

Nejc — My pleasure.

Kyle — Time to spend some money!

Jamie — Even you?! Wow must be god!

Roger — Thanks man, I used the tripod because I didn’t know how long I was going to be shooting for and it’s just easier to tripod it up some times.

Stu — Glad you like it, I hope it helps you!

Mel — Wow thanks, cant wait to see how you get on with it.

Pam — You had better!

Ben — It was shot on a Canon 500D with a 50mm 1.8 lens.

James Andrews

I was looking at the RF602s on ebay, and saw that they can be use to trigger cameras remotely, so I was wondering if I had 2 cameras one with the transmitter and one with the receiver, I should potentially be able to trigger the 2nd camera when I take the first picture? Have you tried to do this at all?

Phil Barker

Awesome post. Been waiting a long time but it’s well worth it

Gonna be trying it out next week while I’m on holiday!

Rick

James — I’ve not tried this but it might work. but I think you’d be better putting a receiver on each camera. That’s how I would do it.

Phil — Thanks dude, look forward to seeing your results.

Stu Greenham

Hi Rick,

Just been looking online at the gear you mentioned in the video (Canon 580EX and the RF-602′s) and just wondered if there are any options out there for someone like me who isn’t at the stage of spending big dollar on a flash but still wants to have a crack at different shots such as the low key shot you showed us?

Second question is what tripod do you have? and again without breaking the bank is there something you would recommend me buying to get me started, at present when playing with the car light trail shots effect I have been having to firmly hold the camera on the bridge railing to stop blurring which isn’t ideal lol

Thirdly, are there any other little gadgets / tools you would recommend for me to assist with my photography, so far I have myself the Canon 450d and thats it but soo eager to get cracking!

Cheers and any help would be saweeet!

Stu

Rick

Stu Thanks for the comment. Absolutely, for a beginner on a budget I would recommend getting a Yongnuo YN460 II flash which you can grab for just under £40, a set of RF602s for £20, and a cheap light stand which you can grab for about £12.

That would get you started for about £70. Then you can grab an umbrella bracket & cheap umbrella for about £25 when you wanna carry on to the next step. I think eBay is your best bet for all those bits. You’d have a really nice set up to ease yourself into strobist shots.

My tripod legs are Camlink TPPRO32B which I got for around £90 a year ago and I was lucky enough to get the Manfrotto 322RC2 ball head for my birthday this year. It makes a pretty awesome combo but it’s not the cheapest or lightest set up. Best thing is just to head out to a big camera sore and try a few out.

Gadgets? Hmmm save your money & upgrade your lenses when you can. What lenses are you shooting with at the moment? I used to shoot with a 450D (Upgraded to my 50D around october) I loved shooting with it.

p.s. I also put this post together (Which probably needs updating) but it might help too

Henry

Hey Rick, great post (only just got round to watching the vid, some great tips and ideas, thanks!
having bought the 602′s also i cant wait to start shooting, just been too busy.
look forward to experimenting though!
cheers

Stu Greenham

Cheers for getting back to me so soon Rick! Appreciate you taking time to help!

I will get looking on eBay eager to get started, that sort of price I don’t mind for kicking me off so that sounds great! At the moment I only got my 18-55mm but I figured that would last me a while as I learn then progress to other lenses :)

How long you been doing this stuff then? and also whats the bag you use in the shoot looks pretty sweet! Final q I promise but noticed you live tutha side of the bridge from me, any good places you’d recommend in Lincoln? Me and the misses have been meaning to venture that way for a while heard nice things!

Will be sure to check out the other post ta for that!

Stu

Rick

Henry — Thanks, stop making excuses and get some photos taken!

Stu — cool, if you want someone to check it’s the right auction you can pop me an email before you buy if you like.

I’d really recommend picking up the Canon 50mm F/1.8, you can grab them for about £90 new. Really nice portrait lens, fantastic value for money.

I got my first dSLR in January last year, actually go have a read here if you are interested.

The bag is a Naneu Pro Urbangear U120, it’s a great bag, it can fit most of my stuff in it and a laptop too.

Lincolns a really nice city… but pop me an email with the sort of places you’d be interested in and I’ll hook you up. It’s a little off topic. :)

Sean

hey, thanks a lot for the video. really helpful! i’m still pretty green with lighting techniques so it’s much appreciated.

Rick

Foques — Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Sean — No problem.

Mark — Me too, my favourite.

Fabrice — Thanks, but I think you have misread it says F/1.4 not F/4.

kym

Really informative post, there isn’t enough accessible content like this around. Shame some retard cut your head off in most of the video!

Here is my shot:

Oli

Hey Rick,

Thanks for the great tutorial as Kym said, there isn’t enough content like this around! I gave this a shot tonight and I’m having a nightmare blacking out the background… I’m shooting indoor in a white room… I know it’s gonna sound stupid but could this be the reason?

Thanks again for posting this!

Rick

Oli — Yeah, thats exactly the reason, you aren’t getting the lights far enough away from the wall and they are spilling on to it. White is obviously the most reflective colour. Either try it in a bigger room, or step outside.

oli

Wow thanks for the quick reply! I’m glad it isn’t me doing something stupid… Well I’ll have to go out I suppose as I don’t have any more space at home and everything is white here! Anyway, thanks for the advice and I can’t wait for the next article…

Denver Photographer

Thanks for a tutorial like this. I really like the end to end description of how to pull this off. Thanks a lot. Good work. I wanna try this soon on my own SP.

Steven Buri

Hahaha, great post!

Thanks for taking the time to put this together for all of us :)

I loved the mario theme song music filler while you were setting up and the end of the video where you were like, “…and then this video won’t make any sense…. awesome.” Hahaha.

I’ve always loved these kinds of photos and I’m so happy that I can actually do them now :). It’s so hard to find areas where this works with natural light.

liz

You did an amazing job explaining the whole process, I totally understand how to do this now! Thank you so much!

Rick

Denver Photographer — No problem, let me know how you get on.

Steven Buri — I enjoyed it, yeah I needed to put some music with it and that popped into my head. It’s not to hard to find a spot to do this, as long as the sun isn’t right on you, you should be fine.

Alexander — Any time.

sweetpeatoad — Gunna try out the technique? Share it if you do.

Irfan — Cool shot, might work well with a square crop, what do ya think?

liz — Great, thats what I was aiming for.

Karen — I’m in the UK, it’s light until about 9.30/10pm at the moment, but the nights will start drawing in again soon.

Rick

I’m glad I amuse you chuck, I’m sure I wasn’t doing it to make it easier to do the video, help with framing, or to help people see the relationship between the camera, subject & background. Very constructive, you’ve really made a strong & meaningful contribution to the post, do come again.

rajamannar

hey rick, thank you for the tutorial. can you suggest the wireless trigger system in the nikon gear system. i have nikon d-90 ,sb-26 flash,sb-600, digital flash radio trigger, stand and umbrella. i am in india.

Jeff

Great tutorial Rick. I found it linked in comments from here: http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/lighting/the-complete-beginner%E2%80%99s-guide-to-shooting-low-key/#comment-16771

I really like your technique of using the histogram to figure out when the aperture is closed enough to give you no ambient, I can see using that lots.

I also shoot with a 50d and a 50mm1.4 – an inexpensive 18-200 will likely be my next lens purchase.

I’ve priced out a set of those recievers on ebay.ca and I think I’ll get them ordered, I’ve been bouncing flash with my 42″ reflector to get light a bit more off camera with my 430ex so far.

Again, great tutorial, thanks very much for sharing.

e11world

Very nice and amazing tutorial! I totally love this!!
I actually have never tried this and my current Canon S2IS only goes up to F8 so I will try this with an actual SLR camera in the next few days and see how that goes. Thanks for sharing this great effect!

Rick

Marc, great work. Doing this with constant lighting is a great idea, especially if you already have the tools. One of the best things about photography is being creative with the items you have available to you. Don’t worry about being inspired by someones work, everyone does it and it’s the best way to learn. When I was getting started I used to find a photo I liked and then I’d try and create my own version of that. As long as you aren’t just completely ripping off someones work then it’s all win.

Json

Hey Rick,

I’m pretty dumbfounded that I didn’t check your blog out sooner! I’m on your flickr all the time and browse your site every now and then but never your blog.

Thanks for doing this write-up Once I get my strobist kit setup I am definitely going to try this out.

ps. I’ve emailed you a couple times and I appreciate your help

@Mitchy79

Hello Rick,

thank you so much for this very detailed tutorial! Before this it was hard for me to understand how all these nice lowkey photos were taken. Now I got it and I want to share my first shot with you:

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchy79/4886047801/[/img]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchy79/4886047801/

Maybe it is a little too dark though. This is because I took this picture in a small room and had to lower the power of my flash to 1/32 in order to make the white wall (1.5 meters) behind me disappear.

sdtacoma

Totally awesome dude. Thank you for putting this together. I can’t wait to give it a go.

Pedro Mendes

Great post and video. Thanks for that! I’ve just got my first DSRL a couple of months ago, but this a technique I look forward to using.
Best,
Pedro

Josh

Hey Rick,

This is a great tutorial. I tried to do this the other day and I ended up maxing out my aperture, and it still wasn’t dark enough. Is that just because there was too much ambient light? (ISO 100, F22, 1/200)

Also, what bag are you using in the video to tote all your gear around?

Thanks man!

David

Absolutely brilliant tutorial Rick. I’ve learnt so much from this post and your others on gear choices already. Congratulations on the 50/50 project too, very inspiring work.

Greg

Hey Rick!
Fantastic tutorial. I was looking through your work and I have to say I’m really impressed. I’ve always loved dramatic, high-contrast lighting, and this is just perfect! This is a somewhat off-topic question, but what camera did you shoot your tutorial video with?
Look forward to seeing more of your work,
Greg

Rick

Josh, yeah I would think it was still just a bit too bright still. You don’t really wanna have to force your aperture that narrow if it can be helped because it will mean your speedlight has to work harder. I use a Lowepro Computrekker Plus AW, it was the biggest backpack I could find for fitting all my strobist stuff in.

Greg, the video was shot on a Canon 500D.

Wize

I like to bookmark this page if you allow.
Brief but very helpful explanation. have never tried low key photo before but keen to try it in the near future.
Thanks!!!

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Rick Nunn