kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I like the 1st one best, Mike. I don't really know what makes an image high key, though. I just know what I like.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Great reflection shots ✳️💢🏆💢✳️

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Thanks, Ken, I appreciate your feedback.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Thanks for your generous comment, Joe.

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Wow, a fabulous set, Mike. The beauty of the backgrounds and subjects tonality forced me to do a double download, that's how special I thought they were and I didn't want to miss anything.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

I really appreciate your enthusiastic response, Joe.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

A great set of images!!! Mike
But I don't see high-key

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

Great job capturing birds in flight

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Very nice. love them all/ Nice work

randave2001 Loc: Richmond

Looks like you are doing a good job of 'winging' it, Mike.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Very nice set Mike - the smoke gives an interesting look!

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Well done, Mike. I like them all!!

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

These are really good, Mike. If they were mine, I'd be REALLY pleased! Not sure I like the colour of the background in the first one, but the succeeding ones are fine. There is basically no background to distract.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I agree.... These are all nice images with a lot of potential, but as they are displayed here they are not "high key".

This is nitpicking, but...

In a histogram high key images will be biased strongly toward the right side and possibly even go "off the scale" to the right. In low key lighting it's the opposite and a histogram would be heavily biased toward the left. There's a relatively narrow dynamic range to these images, relatively few shadows and a "minimalist" look that also can be done with high and low key. But there are no "pure white" or "brightness" or extreme highlights dominating your images, which are characteristics of high key lighting.

If you look a a histogram of any of your images it's very centered with a narrow dynamic range that doesn't reach into either the high or low tonalities. That's "flat lighting".... not high key or low key.

For example, here's a high key macro shot I did some years ago...



In the image above the background was a pretty unattractive concrete patio. I used a high key exposure to make that background essentially disappear.

Some descriptions and comparisons of high key and low key lighting effects:

https://www.creativelive.com/blog/high-key-vs-low-key-lighting/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Dynamic+Search+Ads+l_T1+5459&utm_content=507189467404&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjo2JBhCRARIsAFG667WSZRojXoZd_k6qJeb_czdx1e-du4EeUwx1aCAVmZZRsYOHJCB-9-kaAizqEALw_wcB

https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-light-shoot-edit-high-key-photography/

https://shutterstoppers.com/high-key-photography-natural-light

It's possible your images look "high key" to you, if you're viewing them on an uncalibrated computer monitor. When not calibrated, most monitors are way too bright for accurate photo rendition... plus all monitors "clip" the extremes (none can render "pure black" or "pure white"). Viewing your images on an uncalibrated monitor will usually make the images appear much brighter than they actually are. Uncalibrated monitors basically "fool" their users into incorrectly adjusting their images too dark. Then they're surprised when they make a print or view their images on a calibrated monitor.

Just in case that's what has happened (or even if it's not), your images can easily be made high key in post processing. I hope you don't mind... Below is the result of a couple very simple exposure tweaks to your image #2 in Photoshop (using a calibrated monitor).

There's nothing wrong with the images as you've shown them. In fact, they're quite nice. They just aren't "high key", as described. And I'm not necessarily suggesting the version of the image below is "better", just that it's more truly "high key"...

(Download)

MT native Loc: Big Sky Country — Montana

Great images. Enjoyed the reflections in your captures. Keep up the good work.