16 Radiant Examples of High Key Photography

High key photography is a technique where the subject is intentionally lit in a certain way to get the bright spectacular look. It was developed in the early days o deal with high contrast situations in film and television. This was later adopted by photographers to creatively capture happy and light moods in photos.

While the high key look can be achieved in Photoshop, purists will insist on doing it the “right” way: using multiple light sources, bumping up exposure a bit, etc. True high key photography is not about overexposure; it is, rather, about bright, nondirectional lighting and a lack of contrast and shadows. Naturally, there is some degree of stylistic subjectivity to account for and not every photo that fancies itself a high key image will match the criteria for high key imagery point for point. Sometimes that’s okay.

Here are 16 radiant examples of high key imagery.