Key shifting

**NOTE: This particular blog post will probably only be interesting to Photo Buffs, but I'll try to make it as simple as possible.

I learned this crazy technique for the first time today, in my Practical Lighting Class! I learned how to create interesting light, using flash during the day! You'd think all you would do is just set up your light and take a shot; of course it's not this simple. It's actually so extremely complicated that I don't think I actually fully understand it, and definitely wouldn't be able to do it on my own. I was in a group, and we all helped each other out. It's very technical, and has a lot of math equations, setting up of high voltage power packs and understanding how to actually make it work! hahaha.. I'm a Photographer, not a mathematician! If I do ever get into this stuff, I will have an assistant do this stuff for me!

"Key shifting" is the technique that I learned today. It is primarily used outdoors, but can just as easily be used inside if one takes into account the color temperature of the interior lighting and compensates accordingly. Mixed source lighting (the sun, and artificial lights) basically entails using studio strobe equipment outdoors as your main source of light while still allowing the ambient light to play a part by illuminating the area surrounding the subject.The strobe will be used to “overpower” the ambient daylight and create a very unique effect. If you over or underexpose your background exposure, while keep the same exposure on your subject, you will create an interesting shot.
If you managed to get through that with any kind of understanding, I am very impressed. I had to read it about 5 times, to sort of wrap my head around it. There are 5 more pages of my assignment to fully explain what the hell it all means.  So, I went outside today, and these are the results I got for "keyshifting" . Please keep in mind it was a purely technical exercise, so I don't think my shots were at all creative. I wish I had more time to practice!

Here is an example of something my teacher has done. You can see how the subject is lit up, and the background is underexposed slightly, creating a dramatic effect!

Here are some of the ones I took for my assignment! (one, two and three stops under exposed backgrounds!) its hard to tell the difference this small, but you can click on them to see them larger!  They aren't anything special, but the fact that I was able to actually do it, is amazing!  YAY ME!!! Take a class, and try something new, you might surprise yourself!