1.  http://www.lowel.com/edu/foundations_of_lighting.html
 http://www.lowel.com/edu/

2. 3POINTLIGHTING
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3. Interview Lighting
 In the course of developing skills in the craft of lighting, this lesson may
be among the most important. The concepts covered here will
reappear in many other lighting setups. Sometimes they are there on a
subtle level, but they are almost always there.
As you go through the different lessons, pay attention to how often
these concepts reappear. The more you understand them, both
individually and in the way they work together to create an effective
image, 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. You can also view the entire setup to see
placement & choice of fixtures. 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

10.  There concepts of contrast
and light angles were often
influenced by the light coming
in a window. Very often from
a window that didn't have
direct sunlight shining into it.
 The north-light window in old
photo studios and our modern
soft lights attempt to emulate
this classic look.

11. 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 of the shot.

12. Soft Key Light
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13. Hard Key Light
 We are using a 250-watt Pro-light, notice the
difference? The transition between the light
and dark areas is more dramatic. If you move
the key light until you see a light triangular
patch under the near eye, you've achieved what
is referred to as Rembrandt lighting.
 Rembrandt actually experimented with having
the main light coming from many directions, but
this is the look that stuck to his name. You may
notice that both soft and hard key lights are
approaching the face from the far side of the
face, from the camera which is referred to as
the short side
 While it doesn't always have to be so, it is very
common and a safe place to start. It might be
so popular because it has a slimming effect on
the photograph.
Full lighting with hard Key
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Lady
with an Ostrich-Feather Fan, c. 1658/1660
Pro-light, 250W Focusing Hard light

14. Key Light Techniques
 The nose shadow is easier to see if you use a hard light, but
blends more attractively when you use a larger soft source. As
a start, find the angle and height for your Key light that places
that shadow along the crease between the nose and the
corner of the mouth.
 Now try placing your light so the nose shadow is nearly gone.
This will happen when your light is anywhere from directly in
front of the subject, assuming they are facing slightly away
from the lens, to directly over the camera. You will start to lose
the shadow line on the cheek as you come around but the
effect may be what you want.
 Bringing the Key light 'face-on' is effective for lightening the
shadows from wrinkles. While this position tends to allow light
to spill onto the background it is usually more important to
have the subject look good. If possible you could move the
subject and lights further away from the back wall to allow the
spill to fall off. This position is very flat light so you need to
balance the needs of filling wrinkles or a slimming effect.
 Another look is what is sometimes called Hatchet lighting.
Here the shadow line runs right down the center of the face. It
can be a dramatic effect when paired with little or no fill
lighting or some edge lights.

15. 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 add a little shine to the hair adds a
finishing touch. Experiment by adjusting the
distance between the light and your subject
to achieve the balance between your key
light and the ambient light.

In this example a 500-watt Omni-light with a
nylon umbrella worked well for the single
Key and Fill light and a 125-watt L-light is
providing the shine on the hair and Single light (Omni-
shoulders. Don't forget to make the
necessary changes in the height of your light 500 W) with
stand and possibly an exposure change to
your camera as you adjust position of the umbrella,
lights. Perhaps your situation calls for a positioned to
more or less powerful bulb or a different
fixture. Get the feel of working with a small function as Key
hard source (you can really see where those light, with enough
shadows are) and then perhaps add an
umbrella and see that by increasing the softness to also
relative size of the light source you increase
its softness. act as Fill light.
Single light result

16. F ill L ig h t
 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.

17. Fill Light
 Fill light alone Rifa 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.

In the setup shown in the viewer at the beginning of this lesson, we have
chosen a Rifa light 44 soft light, with a 250-watt bulb, with a soft Egg
Crate to control the spill.

This doesn't just apply to lighting faces. Anytime you are treating the side
left shaded by the Key light you are working on the Fill.

The amount of Fill that is added depends on your taste (or the preference
of the person who hired you). Keep in mind the 'look' you are attempting;
especially if you are shooting something that is dramatic.

Generally you can most easily alter the mood of a shot by raising and
lowering the intensity of the Fill. In fact on some soap operas the main
difference in lighting between a daytime interior scene and a night setting
is they drop the Fill almost all together and light the background a darker
than normal.

18. Fill Light Techniques
 Placing light placement
positions near the camera to
hide the shadows behind the
subject or more off to the
opposite side from the Key
light.
 When the Fill is directly over
the camera it adds to the Key
light's exposure so consider
adjusting for it. You will most
often need a less intense light
for the Fill side.
 Key light you could adjust the
A) Lower ratio of Key to Fill light
distance to lessen the
intensity as well as by adding B) B) Higher ratio of Key to Fill light
scrims or neutral density gels C) C ) D oubl Nose Shad ow
e
to the light.
 Images A & B to the right
show differing levels of Fill
light. Notice how image A
looks more fully lit, while still
maintaining the Key as the
dominant light source, and the
reduced Fill in image B
increases its dramatic effect.

19. Reflected Fill Light
 Another method of providing Fill is by
bouncing the Key light off of a reflector. A
specular reflector (the shiny hard side) will
kick back nearly as much light as the Key
light shining on it, in the same degree of
hardness that strikes it.
 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
Specular Reflector bouncing
very soft reflected fill at close range. You Soft Key light to create Fill
may have natural fill already happening Closeup detail
from light colored walls reflecting back to
the subject. Indeed you might even plan
such a situation.
 Note: In highly reflective rooms, if your
lighting is too flat, you might consider a
technique called negative fill.

20. 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.

21. Hair Light Techniques
 A l o n g w i t h the amount of Fill light you
use, you can continue to add finesse to the
lighting to reveal the subjects form by using light
from angles beyond what you use for the Fill.
Both Hair lights and Edge lights fall into this
category.
 Traditionally Hair lights are placed directly
opposite the camera. It creates highlights and
gives a nice shine to the hair. Small hard lights
will make small hard lines and edges, which are
appropriate if you are implying the motivation for
the light is a hard source. Larger sources
provide an even, gentle wash.
 In the nineteen seventies the extreme backlight
was the rage. Find a glamour photo from the era
and it will likely have a strong back light blasting
directly at the back of the head causing the Hair light alone
lion's mane hair style in fashion at the time to
glow. If this is what you're after, just try to keep Rifa 44, 250W Soft
the light far enough back so it doesn't start your light
subject's hair on fire.
 Hair light aloneRifa 44, 250W Soft light
 Since all backlights are aimed in the direction of
the camera 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.

22. Edge Light
 E d g e l i g h t d e f i n e d : 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.

23. Edge Light Techniques
 Edge lights create subtle defining 'edges',
and line-like highlights, which can be
added to your setup to delineate the edge
of your subject. You may hear them
referred to as kickers, liners or edge
lights.
 If your subject's dark hair or jacket seems
to blend into a similarly dark
background you can add an 'edge' to
visibly separate, or cut them away, from
the background. You provide a clue to the
viewer where the subject leaves off and
the background begins. If you have
decided to use little or no fill an edge of
some sort can enhance the dramatic
effect.
 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 Edge light alone
line. Try hard sources at different L-light, 100W
distances and angles. Try using a small
light with an umbrella or with a diffusion
gel.

24. 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.

25. 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. However it is not unusual to
highlight something in the background for
interest. A plant or dim lamp is a common
set dressing.
 For the setup used in the Viewer above, Setup with cookaloris
we created a mottled shadow pattern on
the background by shining a hard light pattern
through a cookaloris (a random pattern cut Pro-light, 250W
into wood, foamcore, or black foil). It was lit
by a 250W focusable Pro-light, a hard
source. If you look at the Setup shot in the
Viewer, you will see the cookaloris, tho' the
Pro is hidden from view by the Rifa Key
light.
 By the time you've put up your Key, Fill,
Hair and Edge lights you might have light
bouncing off the walls and ceiling lighting
up the background too much.

26. Background Light Options
 Slash Accent
 It is also common to '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.
Focusing the light to flood will give a
larger and more consistent output
level to the slash.

You can mix the slash with general
background fill, making it less
prominent, or use the slash accent Setup with Slash
alone in a darker background to
increase its effect. Coloring the slash Accent
with a gel is also a common Omni-light 500W
approach.
focusable

27. Background Light Options
 Highlight Accent
 A more practical approach to
adding visual interest to the
background 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
place a small pool of light on the
flowers and the picture frame.
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, adding to Setup with Highlight
the natural feel of the effect.
AccentL-light with
100W lamp

28. Background Light Options
 Color Background
 A popular technique in news
magazine format TV over the
past 10 years 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
 In this shot, we added red gel to background
an Omni-light, focused wide Omni-light 500W
enough to cover the background focusable
area of the shot.
 Use barn doors on the fixture to
trim any spill that may fall on the
subject, as its color will make it
very noticeable.