Low key photography is hugely popular and successful at the moment (a lot of competitions are being won with low key portrait photography this year). I’ve made my case for the awesomeness of flash photography after dark over and over, but with this prompt I challenge you to explore the darkness and capture portraits with as little light as you can.
Shoot the darkness: find unusual light sources for creative photos
High key and bright and airy have been on trend for years, but dark and moody is back. Let’s get into it.
How to use this photo pose prompt
Find creative and unusual light sources in the dark for this prompt (see ideas below). You are still shooting a portrait here, so your shutter speed will need to be fast enough that your subject isn’t blurred (although that’s something to explore for creative effect too!): try 1/160 second or more. Compensate by increasing the ISO (embrace noise for this one!) and opening your lens to its widest aperture (e.g. f/1.8).
Critically, don’t let your camera expose on auto for these photos, unless using spot metering and targeting your subject with great accuracy. Shoot in manual and ignore what the light meter tells you the settings should be. Your camera’s meter will suggest the settings needed to achieve a brightness averaging to 18% grey across the image, and this will lose most (if not all) of the darkness and shadow that we are exploring with this prompt. I tend to eyeball it (i.e. guess and check then adjust) rather than using spot metering. It’s easy enough to do, and avoids the inevitably ruined photos that I get when I forget to turn spot metering off for the next time I shoot (no? Just me?).
Prompt: Shoot the darkness
- Look for creative and unusual light sources in the dark. At events and on location: sunset, dark hallways, outside under streetlights, dance floor lighting, light displays and light art. In home: torches, candles, sparklers, disco light toys, glow sticks.
- Expose for the small amount of light in the scene (don’t follow the meter).
- Look for interesting shadows, rim light, outlines.
- Focus on the minimal light you need to tell the story of the subject.
Creative extension
- Shoot with a long shutter speed (like 5 or 10 seconds) as if you were taking a nighttime landscape, but include a human subject. Have them hold still but embrace the fact that their image may ghost in the frame. Explore creative effects like sweeping a torch beam over their face just before the shutter closes at the end.
- Add smoke to the scene to bring out the beams of light.
Tag me @promptographerguide and use the hashtag #promptographerguide to share your favorite creative prompts.
Want this prompt in your Field Cards set?
All the info in this prompt post is summarized onto a single card in the Promptographer Guide Field Cards, with the details given in the accompanying Guidebook. All the ideas are given on the one card so you have a rich, comprehensive tool for sparking ideas. I’ve designed it this way so you only need five to ten cards to build a whole photoshoot.
If you want this prompt in your set, make sure you include Set 2: Creative Essentials in your Field Cards.
