Low key cycling portrait

I currently have a self challenge to do some low key portraits of people doing what they love. Here is my buddy Mike with his tri bike

Very nicely done. I love the drama of the low key image.

This isn't intended in any way as criticism but does this qualify as low key?

Well according to google it says "having a predominance of dark or muted tones." So I suppose that would probably be a little more on the dark side than this image but I guess the way I always thought of it was just black background with the primary colors being dark.

Just read something similar because I am still learning, myself. I suppose the more experienced photographers would want to see less of the image revealed. I will look forward to their comments.

I too would like input from more knowledgable members. I thought low key was more along the lines of using high contrast shadow and highlight to define the subject.

Generally this wouldnt be considered low key. The middle tones are properly exposed and represented accurately. In a traditional low key image all but the highlights are exposed or manipulated to be darkrt than natural.

Thx for the correction, always learning!

I like the image, the composition and processing. I would call this low-key, because the great majority of the tones are darker or muted. Even the subject's skin tones appear slightly darker than normal. Nice job!

Dorian7 wrote in post #17348139
Thx for the correction, always learning!

The definitions are never quite as clear as you would want them to be. Still a nice image. My only thought is that the crop oughta be vertical.