Three Point Lighting – Some rights reserved by billaday
Good lighting is like good taste. Everyone should have it. Not everyone does.
There’s a good reason for that. Lighting a shot for camera is truly an art. The best in the business win big awards for doing it perfectly on big movies with bunker busting budgets. Now you may not have the resources of a Steven Spielberg, or maybe not even an Ed Wood, but you can have Hollywood-style lighting if you know how to utilize your gear to get the proper effect. One of the first things you should put in your mental book of lighting know how is the proper way to set up three-point lighting.
Those “three points” of light are known as The Key Light, The Fill Light and The Back Light and you can probably guess what it is that they do. The Key Light is the main light you will use on your subject(s). The FIll Light helps to counter the shadows caused by the Key and The Back Light illuminates the background. True enough, but if you want to know how to use them to full effect it helps to know what to look for when setting up your three points.
Always set up your Key Light first. The Fill and Back Lights are there to support what the Key Light is doing. Commonly you would place your Key Light on the side that your subject is facing in the frame. For example, if you were shooting an person speaking and they were facing the left side of the frame, you would place the light to the left side of the camera as well. What you want to do is use the Key Light on the “short” side of the face, the side facing away from the camera, leaving the “long” side of the face in shadow. This is where the Fill Light comes in.
Without the Fill, you have deep contrast and shadow. By adding the Fill Light, you can take away these shadows to give your subject a more natural look. Because you do not want to create a second shadow, a Fill Light is generally softer and/or less bright than a Key. You can always change the amount of Fill by using diffusion such as a scrim, or by sometimes just moving the Fill Light back. If you do notice a second shadow in the shot, your Fill Light is too bright. You’re absolutely correct if you think that how you adjust the Fill will have a very big impact on how dramatic your subject looks on camera.
Sometimes, you don’t even need to use an actual light as a Fill. You can simply throw enough light to reduce and eliminate shadow with a reflector. Reflectors can be something as simple as a white foam core board, which is not only very budget-effective but quite portable as well.
The last of our three points, and not the least by any means, is the Back Light. Sometimes also known as a “Rim Light” this point of illumination is used to create an outline around your subject which further separates it from the background of the image. You do this by setting up the Back Light behind your subject. Commonly, the Back Light is placed so that it shines down from above your subject and off to an angle (so that it doesn’t appear in the shot). That little corona of light you see around the head and shoulders is what you’re looking for. That halo is what creates the illusion of greater depth from your background. This light needs to be very directional in order not to ruin your contrast or, even worse, spill into the camera lens.
And with a little practice, three point lighting becomes easy and you can achieve a more professional look in your video. When you just throw lights in front of your subject you get a very flat-looking scene. Three point lighting is a very standard technique that helps take what would otherwise be a boring shot and adds dimension and depth. By using light and shadow three point lighting creates an illusion of three dimensions in a two dimensional frame and gives you the Hollywood look you’re going for.
To learn more about lighting your online video shoots (plus any other tips you might need!), please visit the How To section on Watch.tv.
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