Playing It In A Higher Key - Hybrid High Key

Guwahati

It’s the stuff of nightmares to be out in the field for wildlife if the light dims out on you and you’re only getting unsaturated and dull images of a subject. It happens quite often actually during the early evenings and it sucks when the subject is attractive. The wasted opportunities are so heart breaking that I usually pack up my camera when the light leaves these days and try to enjoy the sightings for themselves without the expectation of photos. Dull images usually just don’t work with wildlife and I won’t even try anymore unless really tempted to in those conditions. Clarity, colour and sharpness are all necessary for wildlife but that need isn’t universal though.

Well, some of those conditions that make me pack up on safari became exactly what I was after when I was recently out to specifically play with my interpretation of what they call High Key images. I was going to use some of the basics of the concept that appealed to me while totally disregarding some others that I hated. The hope was that the hybrid process would firstly be fun and also provide for unique and different perspectives at the end. Im ok with compromising on sharpness and the introduction of artistic blur where warranted. I just hate low colour saturation artistic or not. I haven’t sat through a single black and white movie in all my life no matter how well recommended it was.

The main point with these kinds of images is intent and I don’t think that you can pass off generally crappy and dull pictures of normal stuff as intentional anything. These images usually use the overall lightness of an image to narrate a story that fits that setting intentionally and the method has to be implemented keeping in mind that the characteristics which are considered below par for usual pictures are considered best for the creation of these dreamy and fantastical photos. I’m talking anime dream and flash back sequences here to give you a relatable example. Just as you cannot zoom in on any random part of an image and call it macro, you can’t call any crappy unsaturated image intentionally done high key unless the intent shows in the subsequent final result. It’s a technique that you have to deploy during creation and not an afterthought. I love colour and saturation a little bit too much to be drawn to be making those almost monochrome frames myself though cause I just don’t see them as perspectives to capture yet. This site has no black and white and the galleries show that desaturation isn’t really my thing. But certain parts of the concept have intrigued me for a while now and it was time to see if they can blend in with things that I do enjoy like higher colour saturation. I guess personalization is also pretty much a part of the realm of Abstract Macros that I’m dabbling in now simply because, you can man. Oh ! and anime dream sequences can be saturated and bright as well.

I waited for a cloudy morning to be shooting towards the clouds and had a piece of white cardboard around for just in case as well as prep for what I wanted to try out. Sunlight and saturation were welcome but not the blue sky which I usually covet the most when I’m out for birds and animals. The intent was to play with soft light on a white base. I have been playing with darker backgrounds as you have seen here and wanted the opposite and without backlight which we also encounter a lot of with wildlife. Unlit white backgrounds are not very common if you think about it and that’s probably where all this started. My gallery just had no unlit, white background images till I recently played with milk while making “Down The Rabbit Hole”. We don’t really run into many naturally white things and yet a white base is the go to for display of our art, photos and text.

The white flower in Pics : 2 & 15 just had to be the starting point cause it fit as the best candidate that’s related to the inspiration for this set. White on white usually doesn’t work but it does when you’re doing fantasy and you probably know what I mean if you’ve seen some of the Sci Fi that's coming out these days like Dune and Extrapolations. The easy first realization was that these would have to be Macros cause DOF play around the macro structures were the only perspectives that were coming to me. The next realization was that I was seeing exactly the opposite of what I encountered when I was photographing the pine needles for “A Matter Of Perspective II” which was my first outing with the shorter lens and obviously cause those images had dark backgrounds. I had my white balance, the white cardboard and a pretty white sky along with ample light to provide decent saturation but instead of chasing bright on dark which I’m naturally drawn more to, I was finally playing with a bright colours and structures on white which was what I wanted to do. The process reminded me again how using the shorter lens and trying out these new techniques involves ‘making’ more of these images than in comparison to what I’m used to and how it’s fun in a totally different way. The white background just changed the whole feel and that’s the best that I can describe it. I went back to pine needles and saw completely different frames as potential for images with the change of background. Yeah ! The whole feel changes.

All of these images don’t adhere to strict tonal values that may define high key images for the academically inclined but thankfully I’m never gonna sit in an exam again for anything in my life. To me, a high or low key image is just one in which the overall tonal projection is either light or dark and if something with colour pops into the moment when things are being mixed, so be it as well. I was instinctively following the path of abstract macros which this new lens is leading me down. It’s not intentional. The difference between stuck and learning is you attitude about them and this new tool is helping me realize that I have a lot to learn about this interest of mine. It was fun to execute what I’d envisioned and planned out photographically as opposed to photographically adjusting to conditions which is the approach that I’m more accustomed to. These backyard adventures with the 100 mm are teaching me that you can pretty much take good images of anything provided that you can imagine it with actionable knowledge of your tools. That and your specific personal interests. I don’t really know where this short lens is going to take me next but finding out is surely gonna be the fun of it all.