3 point lighting uses key, fill, and back lights to illuminate a subject. The key light is the primary light and can be soft or hard. Fill light reduces shadows created by the key light. Hair lights separate the subject from the background and add highlights to hair. Edge lights create definition between the subject and background. Back lights further separate the subject and can add lighting effects to the background. Different lighting techniques are used to achieve various aesthetic effects.

1. 3 POINT LIGHTING
Photographic Imaging 1 Casey O’Brien

2. All of the lights are on
here, lighting every
angle.
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3. Only the Key Light is on
here. This is the primary
or dominant source of
light in a shot. There are
two types of Key Light, as
shown in the following
slide.

4. Types of Key Light
Soft Key Light Hard Key Light
It portrays a soft shadow It creates a darker
on the subjects face, shadow, making the
drawing your eye to the photograph more
brighter part of the face. dramatic.

5.  When you’re practicing, keep an eye on
Harsh Nose Light the shadow it creates from the nose.
 It’s easier to create a shadow from the
nose with hard Key light.
 Soft Light blends better
 When the light is directly facing the
Hatchet Lighting subject, the nose shadow will disappear.
 You can make the Key light seem more
effective by making a dramatic face and
wearing makeup with the hard Key light.
 Hatchet Lighting: When the shadow runs
Reduced Nose Light right down the center of the face.
Key Light Techniques

6. Only the fill light is
on here. Fill light is
used to lighten
shadows.

7. What is Fill Light?
 Fill light lights the shaded areas of the subjects face
in a photograph.
Fill Light Techniques
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
Using an umbrella or a softbox is common.

8. Only the hair light is on.

9. Hair Light
• Hair light is a light from behind the subject aimed at the head & shoulders.
• 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.

10. Hair Light
Techniques
•Traditionally Hair lights are placed directly opposite the camera. It creates highlights
and gives a nice shine to the hair.
•For thinning hair or bald heads, you probably already have enough separation from
the background; either because of the contrast or color differences, and only want
to play with adding a subtle edge to the side of the head and neck.
•For shiny heads you could have separate lights for each shoulder or put up a
traditional hair light and block, or flag, the part of the light falling on the head.
•You may just need an edge on the shoulders of a dark garment that is blending into
the background.

11. Only the edge light is on.

12. Edge Light
• Edge light is 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.

13. 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.
•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.
•To experiment with these effects start with small fixtures and keep an eye on the
shadow from the subjects ear.
•Edge lights are also aimed in the direction of the camera, so be careful to keep any
light from shining into the front of the lens, causing lens flare.

14. This is the setup.

15. Background Light
• Background Light is 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.

16. 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.
• 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)
•
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.

17. Background Light Options
• 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.
• Slash Accent
• You can mix the slash with
general background fill, making it
less prominent, or use the slash
accent alone in a darker
background to increase its effect.

18. Background Light Options
 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 setup, 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
the natural feel of the effect.

19. Background Light Options
• 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.
•
Use barn doors on the fixture to trim
any spill that may fall on the subject,
as its color will make it very
noticable.

20. Simple Light Setups
• A second small light from behind to add a little
shine to the hair adds a finishing touch.
•
This setup is providing the shine on the hair and
shoulders.
• Get the feel of working with a small hard source
(you can really see where those shadows are)
and then perhaps add an umbrella and see that
by increasing the relative size of the light source
you increase its softness.

21. 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.
• Using a matte white card will provide a very soft
reflected fill at close range

22.  http://www.lowel.com/edu/foundations_of_lighting.html
 http://www.lowel.com/edu/
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