BW Highkey portraits

[EOS_JD]

It appears to be a good resource. And... the very first chapter, "Identifying High Key," opens with the following two statements.

"High key is the term used to describe photographs with white or bright backgrounds, and usually with bright lighting situations that render subjects in a light tone similar to that of the background. The ultimate high key portrait is one in which the background is a clean white and the subjects are also attired in white."

Thanks for clearing this up.

Pete

And if you had continued.....

"High Key exists wherever the predominant tones in the image are somewhat brighter than the middle key".

Pete I certainly don't disagree with your statement or your view. What I'm trying to point out is that you can have a high key image with darker subjects and darker clothing so long as the tones in the image are somewhat brighter than the middle key.

I agree the ultimate high key images are nice bright clother with a white or light background. Just pointing out that it doesn't always have to conform to that.

In Norman's excellent book there are a couple of images of people wearing black clothes with the white background keeping the dominance of tones above the mid grey.