3 POINT LIGHTING Three point lighting is often the best way to create a flattering portrait, shoot a great headshot and make an interview on video look professional. Here is the essence of three point lighting: Key Light – This is your primary light source. Fill Light – This light adds illumination to the shadow side of the face. The amount of fill used will determine how dramatic the shot will look. Using a lot of fill looks more flattering on most faces, while using little or no fill will give a more dramatic appearance... Backlight – This light hits the subject at the back of the head, carving them out of the background. When you would like the subject to look more glamorous or important, a backlight can be a great way to go. Background Light – A fourth light is used to illuminate the background. Sometimes the keylight can be used to light both the subject and the background. If you only have a few light sources, sometimes you have to get creative. 3-POINT LIGHTING EXERCISE Last night I did a 3-point lighting exercise with the students in my Basics of Cinematography and Lighting class. One of my students, Ty, agreed to act as lighting guinea pig. Over the years I have shot hundreds of interviews on video. Understanding the basic three-point lighting set-up is critical. While I used movie-style lights (hotlights) for the following shots, flash units or even household lights are just as easy to use for these basic principles of light positioning. Here’s how I did it: KEY LIGHT I used a 2-foot/2-bank Kino-Flo light. This is a very soft fluorescent light with built-in barn doors. These units are quite light-weight and give off a flattering soft white glow. If you don’t have access to Kino’s, you can use an off-camera flash unit with a diffusion cover. You can even tape a piece of white paper to the top of the flash unit then tape the other side of the paper in a curve to the bottom of the flash (so it bows out) for the same effect. You can see that the key light is very flattering on his skin tones and gives a soft wrap effect. I placed the key light in Rembrandt light positioning (see the triangle of light under his eye?) because it looked the best on his face at that angle. FILL LIGHT I used another 2-foot/2-bank Kino-Flo but turned off one of the fluorescent bulbs. The fill measured 1.5 stops under what the key light measured. If you have another off-camera flash unit for your digital camera, you can diffuse it in the same way as the keylight but place it a little farther away from your subject so the light isn’t too flat. You can also simply hold up a white bounce card to the shadow side of your subject’s face and catch some of the key light to fill in the shadows. Without the fill (left), the shot is more dramatic. With the fill, the lighting is somewhat flat. For flattering portraits, you want to the light to be relatively even, but with enough of a difference between key and fill that you can see definition in your subject’s face. Each person’s face will be different, so you may need to experiment somewhat with the levels of the fill. BACKLIGHT I used a 1,000-watt fresnel light for the backlight. Fresnel lights have a glass lens in front with concentric circles that helps to focus the light for a sharper line (and no double shadows). I put an ND.6 gel on the light (using clothes pins) to dim the light down two stops. I measured the backlight at 1-stop over what the keylight measured. In place of a 1,000-watt unit, you can use another flash, but don’t diffuse it. Or you can even shine a bright flashlight onto the back of your subject’s head. The backlight makes Ty look important and it carves him out of the background. I positioned the backlight so it would also backlight the prop light behind him. However, without the blue gel, the shot looks unfinished, though with such a simple background. BACKGROUND LIGHT I had to get creative here because we only had 3 working lights available to us last night. In our classroom, we found an overhead projector, so I laid a piece of bright blue gel over the projector, and voila! I had a cool-looking background. This can also work well with slide projectors. Simply put a cool looking slide into the machine, shine it onto the wall, and you’ve got a groovy backdrop. SETTING THE SCENE The classroom I teach in has white walls and there is not much in there to use for props. It’s important to make the background style fit the person you’re shooting. If you’re shooting and interview with Bill Clinton, you wouldn’t use a blue backdrop and a movie light, you’d use a bookcase or a colonial revival hotel lobby. For the purpose of the exercise, I decided this was an interview with an actor. Ty, the actor. We had an extra light unit with a burned out bulb, so I placed that in the background as a prop. A cabinet door had come off the back of the audio console, so we propped it up on a tabletop podium to give some height and structure to the back right side of the frame. USE A BOUNCE CARD If you don't have enough lights to achieve this effect, you can always use a bounce card in place of a fill light. I’d like to try a 3-point lighting exercise in my house using only household lighting and my off-camera flash. As soon as I find a willing model, I’ll post the pictures!