1. 3 POINT LIGHTING
Photographic Imaging 1
By: Jordan Pohle
Period 8

2. Interview Lighting
 The concepts covered here are important and will reappear in
many other lighting setups.
 Pay attention to how often these concepts reappear. The more
you understand them, the easier it will be for you to adapt them as
needed in a variety of situations. They will also help you to create
your own distinctive lighting style.
 Using this interactive player, you can turn on each light in the
setup individually to see its effect.
 These 4 lights: Key, Fill, Hair, & Edge, form the basics of a well lit
portrait. Familiarize yourself with each light and its effect on the
whole picture

9. Window Lighting
 Concepts of contrast and
light angles were often
influenced by the light
coming in a window without
direct light
 The north-light window in
old photo studios and our
modern soft lights attempt
to emulate this classic look

10. KEY LIGHT
 Key Light defined: The primary or
dominant source of light in a shot.
 Often suggests an out of frame source
 Choice of fixture (hard or soft) and its
position will help set the mood

11. Soft Key Light
 The shown Key light is a
very soft Rifa-lite 88 fitted
with a 1000-watt bulb
and a soft Egg Crate
 The cheek closest to the
camera has a shadow
 Begin to notice how often
you see this in movies,
television, and
photographs.
Full lighting with Soft
KeyRifa 88, 1000W
Soft lightRifa with
Fabric Egg Crate
Simple Light Setups

12. Hard Key Light
 This is an example of a hard Key light, instead of soft. We are
using a 250-watt Pro-light.
 The transition between the light and dark areas is more Full lighting Rembrandt
dramatic, and you've achieved what is referred to as with hard Key van Rijn,
Rembrandt lighting.
 Portrait of a
Rembrandt actually experimented with having the main light Lady with an
coming from many directions but this is the look that stuck to
his name Ostrich-
Feather Fan, c.
 While it doesn't always have to be so, it is very common and a 1658/1660
safe place to start. It might be so popular because it has a
slimming effect.
Pro-light, 250W Focusing Hard light

13. Key Light Techniques
 When you practice placing the Key light on
your subject, keep an eye on the shadow it
creates from the nose.
 The nose shadow is easier to see if you use a
hard light but blends more attractively when
you a larger soft source.
 Now try placing your light so the nose
shadow is nearly gone. Bad nose shadow Reduced nose
shadow
 Bringing the Key light 'face-on' is effective for
lightening the shadows from wrinkles. Used
with makeup it is even more effective.
 If possible you could move the subject and
lights further away from the back wall to
allow the spill to fall off.
 Another look is what is sometimes called
Hatchet lighting. Here the shadow line runs Hatchet lighting
right down the center of the face

14. Simple Light Setups
 Sometimes when power or time
limitations are factors, one light will do
the work of both Key and Fill.
 A second small light from behind to Single light (Omni-light 500 W)
add a little shine to the hair adds a with umbrella, positioned to
finishing touch.. function as Key light, with enough
softness to also act as Fill light.
 In this example a 500-watt Omni-light
with a nylon umbrella worked well for
the single Key / Fill light and a 125-
watt L-light is providing the shine on
the hair and shoulders.
 Don't forget to make the necessary
changes in the height of your stand
and possibly an exposure change to
your camera as you adjust position of
the lights.
Single Light Result

15. Fill Light
 Fill light defined: Fill is used to lighten
shadows and control contrast ratios (the
ratio of amount of Key to Fill light).
Combined with the Key light, Fill light
helps define the mood by lighting the
shaded areas in a range of intensities. It
can vary from none, to a level equaling
the Key light.

16. Fill Light
 Fill light aloneRifa 44, 250W Soft light
 After setting the Key light, you may
find that the darker side of the face is
too dark for your tastes.
 There are several methods for adding
Fill light to reduce the shadows.
 We have chosen a Rifa-lite 44 soft
light, with a 250-watt bulb, with a soft Rifa 44, 250W Soft
Egg Crate to control the spill. Fill light alone
 This doesn't just apply to lighting
light
faces.
 The amount of Fill that is added
depends on your taste (or the
preference of the person who hired
you).
 Generally, you can most easily alter
the mood of a shot by raising and
lowering the intensity of the Fill.

17. Fill Light Techniques
 More commonly, you may begin to
consider light placement positions near
the camera to hide the shadows behind
the subject
 When the Fill is directly over the camera it
adds to the Key light's exposure so
consider adjusting for it
 As with the Key light you could adjust the
distance to lessen the intensity as well as
by adding scrims or neutral density gels to
the light.
 A Fill light is usually a soft source so using
an umbrella or a softbox is common.
 B
Images A & B to the right show differing
levels of Fill light.
 A) Lower ratio of Key to Fill lightB) Higher A C
ratio of Key to Fill lightC) Double Nose
Shadow
 Probably the only wrong way to do Fill is if A) Lower ratio of Key to Fill light
it adds another set of visible shadows;
visible to the camera that is (you only B) Higher ratio of Key to Fill light
need to worry about what's in your
frame). C) Double Nose Shadow
 Image C shows a closer view with a double
nose shadow. This is caused by having a
Fill light that is almost as strong as the Key

18. Reflected Fill Light
 Another method of providing Fill is by
bouncing the Key light off of a reflector
 In the example shown, the soft Key light
is being reflected.
 A stippled reflector surface will soften
the reflected light more and give less
chance of secondary shadows.
 Using a matte white card will provide a
very soft reflected fill at close range.
 Note: In highly reflective rooms, if your
lighting is too flat, you might consider a
technique called negative fill. This is
often done by hanging a dark cloth or
piece of black foamcore on the fill side to
prevent stray light from providing too
much fill. Experiment with different
amounts of fill and see if you can
manipulate the effect to change the feel Specular Reflector bouncing Soft
of the lighting. Key light to create Fill
Closeup detail

19. Hair Light
 Hair light defined: A light from behind the
subject, often weaker than the Key or Fill,
aimed at the head & shoulders. It may also
called a backlight. It creates a sense of
separation between subject and background,
and adds highlights & shine to hair, and is
often widened to include a subject's
shoulders. Working with Hair light gets
trickier with receding hairlines, and may be
done without in that situation.

20. Hair Light Techniques
 Along with the amount of Fill light you use,
you can continue to add finesse to the
lighting. Both Hair lights and Edge lights fall
into this category.
 Traditionally, Hair lights are placed directly
opposite the camera
 If extreme backlight is what you're after, just
try to keep the light far enough back so it
doesn't start your subject's hair on fire.
 If you are dealing with thinning hair or bald
heads, you probably already have enough
separation from the background
 Hair light aloneRifa 44, 250W Soft light Hair light alone
 Be careful to keep any light from shining into Rifa 44, 250W Soft
the front of the lens, causing lens flare.
light
 With the advent of modern cameras there is
less need for the really heavy use of hair light

21. Edge Light
 Edge light defined: A light from behind
the subject, often weaker than the Key or
Fill, is placed to create an edge of
definition between subject and
background. Similar in practice to Hair
light, it is also a form of backlight
normally used to define one dark object
from another, for example a dark jacket
from a similarly dark background.

22. Edge Light Techniques
 Edge lights create subtle defining 'edges',
and line-like highlights
 If your subject's dark hair or jacket seems
to blend into a similarly dark background
you can add an 'edge' to visibly separate
them from the background.
 To experiment with these effects start
with small fixtures and keep an eye on
the shadow from the subjects ear.
 It is popular to have a light edge along
the jaw line.
 Try using a small light with an umbrella
or with a diffusion gel.
 Edge lights are also aimed in the Edge light alone L-light, 100W
direction of the camera, so be careful to
keep any light from shining into the front
of the lens, causing lens flare.
 Wave your hand in front of the light and
see if a shadow falls on the camera.

23. Background Light
 Background Light defined: Used for lighting the
background of a set, as a whole or specific areas. Or for
lighting objects in the background of the set that are
significant to the image. It also contributes to creating
separation between subject and background. Often the
function of the light is fulfilled by more than one fixture at
a time. It is possible to use multiple background lights.

24. Background Light Techniques
 How you deal with backgrounds depends on
whether it is part of the story or just a neutral
setting for your subject.
 Either way you may notice the background
level is usually down, or less bright than the
subject.
 For the setup used in the Viewer above, we
created a mottled shadow pattern on the
background by shining a hard light through a
cookaloris (a random pattern cut into wood,
foamcore, or black foil).
 It was lit by a 250W focusable Pro-light, a Setup with cookaloris
hard source pattern
 You can try turning off any room lights, or by
adding distance between the subject and the
background
 Setup with cookaloris patternPro-light, 250W
 Since large broad sources tend to spill on the
background consider using an Egg Crate on
any softlights you use
Pro-light, 250W

25. Background Light Options
 Slash Accent
 You can 'treat' the background
using a slash of light made by
putting two barndoors close
together on a hard light source.
 The image to the left shows a
slash created by a focusable
Omni-light.
Setup with Slash Accent
 You can mix the slash with
general background fill
 Coloring the slash with a gel is
also a common approach.
Omni-light 500W
focusable

26. Background Light Options
 Highlight Accent
 A more practical approach would
be to add a highlight to an object
in the setting.
 In this shot, we used a tiny L-light
with 100 Watt lamp directed to
make a small pool of light on the
flowers and the picture frame.
Setup with Highlight
 The hard light character of the
lamp created a sharp shadow.
 The result looks like it have could
come from track lighting or a
recessed ceiling light
Accent L-light with
100W lamp

27. Background Light Options
 Color Background
 A popular technique recently has
been to give the background a
more obviously treated / theatrical
effect.
 It provides a contrast of color and
feel between the environment and
the subject. Setup with Color background
 In this shot, we added red gel to an
Omni-light
 Use barn doors on the fixture to
trim any spill that may fall on the
subject
Omni-light 500W
focusable

28. Cited Sources
 http://www.lowel.com/edu/foundations_of
 http://www.lowel.com/edu/