Low Key Landscape with Clouds
Northern Russia 2009
A black and white photograph contains shades of gray called a gray scale. These are graded from 0 to 10 with 0 representing black and 10 representing white. A low key image consists of tones of gray from the lower or blacker part of the scale. Some part of the blacks must be pure black and some part of the whites must be pure white.
Pure blacks are normally the shadows. And pure whites are clouds, like the highlights of these, or reflections on a shiny surface.
High Key Landscape
A high-key photo contains mainly the upper, lighter, shades of gray but also some true blacks.