Major Key and Minor Level

[KatePenny]

Does anyone know what these mean in relation to the value scale and still lifes? ie. high major and low minor

[Deany]

Not too sure, though it could be related to “high key”, “low key” I heard some artists describe values. Which apparently means that high key is basically lightest values(including midtones I think), while low key are shadow family.

[RobertSeal-Coon]

Not sure about “Minor Level”, but Bill Perkins describes the Major Key and Minor Key in his video on Colour Theory 1: Value.

Basically (from what I understood):

• Major Key refers to the proportion of light to dark in a picture.  Therefore a high Major Key will have more light areas than dark areas, medium will be balanced and low will have more dark than light
• Minor Key refers to the contrast of the lights and darks that exist in a picture, regardless of their quantity.  Therefore a high Minor Key will have a high contrast (lights will be very different to darks), medium will move them closer and low will move them closer still, meaning that either the darks that exist are pale or the lights that exist are dark.

Then you can combine the two, for example a high Major Key with low Minor Key will mean a picture that is mostly light, but the darks that are there will not contrast greatly with those lights.

I may have misunderstood, but this was my take home.  It may be good for you to watch the video as I’m sure that he will describe it better than me!

[Author]

Posts