Low Key Lighting

Traditional photographic lighting uses a key light, a fill light and a back light, whereas low key lighting often uses only one key light, which can be controlled by a fill light or a reflector to soften the effect. This type of lighting excentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into darkness, while the higher points are illuminated. Low key lighting tends to make the viewer feel more alienated, which is why this type of lighting is used in extremely tense scenes or in horrors. An example