A high key image is one which consists almost entirely of bright tones. This works really well for subjects with white or near-white tones and gives a very bright, airy look. Not every image needs a full range of tones from solid black to brilliant white, and not every image needs the ‘perfect’ histogram. Histograms are there to tell you what’s happening, not what to do.
High key
A photo where the tones are predominantly bright or white. It’s partly the subject that makes a photograph high key – a white cat on a white cushion, for example, and partly the exposure technique – slight overexposure will give a high key look.