“I used this old-school publicity trick to make these flamingos appear to be they have been photographed in a studio!”

You’ll be forgiven for pondering I took this shot of a flamingo in a photograph studio with lights and a black background. Nonetheless, for this shot of the flamingo in late winter sunshine at WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, UK, I used a traditional ‘low-key’ images method. 

It’s simpler than you would possibly assume. First you want topics to be a lighter color and brightly lit by the solar, then place your self so backgrounds behind the topics are in deep shadow. With the right publicity for the sunshine ranges on the chook, you may render the darker background to look completely black within the shot.