HIGH-KEY LIGHTING
A lighting scheme in which the fill light is raised to almost the same level as the key light. This produces images that are usually very bright and that feature few shadows on the principal subjects. This bright image is characteristic of entertainment
genres such as musicals and comedies such as
Peking Opera Blues (
Do Ma Daan, Tsui Hark, Honk Kong, 1986)
LOW-KEY LIGHTING
A lighting scheme that employs very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects. This lighting scheme is often associated with "hard-boiled" or suspense
genres such as
film noir. Here are some examples from
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958.)
This was taken from a Yale Class website. Last I checked Yale was a fairly reputable educational source.