Low key imagery is dark and moody. It’s usually underlit and has a strong contrast between the generally dark color of the scene, and the few areas of the subject that are lit. It is dramatic, and striking. Shooting low key imagery in a natural setting is possible, but relies on a particular set of conditions being available, notably a darker background, and a light source that is doing a good job of lighting only a portion of your subject, often from the side or back. This is more easily achieved in a controlled environment such as a studio, where a black backdrop can be created, and the light source setup deliberately. Any subject is fine for this contest, and images do not need to be in black and white, colour is fine too.
This Premium Contest is worth 1.5x the standard points towards your Leaderboard ranking. It’s Expert-judged AND crowd-rated, with your score from each combined. Find out more about ranking points here. Our Experts are some of the world’s finest photographers, who select the best images, and provide valuable feedback to help you improve.
Every photo submitted will be available for the crowd to rate once the submissions period has ended. You can see all the images uploaded to a contest, but will need to rate them to see how they’re ranked once the rating period begins.
Some contests on Photocrowd also have a judge. After the submission period closes the judge chooses their favourite images and writes some image reviews. The crowd and judge results will be announced on the same day.
For a more detailed explanation of how rating works, see our FAQs