The document discusses the concepts and techniques of 3-point lighting for portraits. It describes the key light, fill light, hair light, and background light individually. For each light, it covers the purpose, examples of hard vs soft lights, placement techniques, and ways to modify the light, such as changing the intensity with distance or adding scrims. The goal is to demonstrate how these basic lighting setups can be used and adapted for different photographic situations and subjects.

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3 POINT LIGHTING
Photographic Imaging 1

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Interview Lighting
 In the course of developing skills in lighting, this lesson may be
among the most important. The concepts learned here will reappear
in other lighting setups.
 As we go through other lessons see if you can see where the
concepts reappear. If you can pick up on this it will make them easier
to adapt, this will also help you with developing your personal style
as a photographer.
 Using the following player you can experience the fours lights(Key,
Fill, Hair, and Edge) and help get familiar with them.

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Concepts
 The concepts of contrast and
light angles were often
influenced by the light coming
in a window. Most likely the
window didn't have direct
sunlight shining into it.
 To
create a classic look
photographers used the
north-light window in old
photo studios and our
modern soft lights.

10. + KEY LIGHT
 Key Light: The primary or dominant
source of light in a shot. The light often
suggests an out of frame source. The
mood of the picture could be adjusted if
you fix (hard or soft) and changing the
position to help set the mood of the shot.

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Soft Key Light
 In the setup shown in the
viewer, the Key light is a
very soft Rifa-lite 88 fitted
with a 1000-watt bulb and
a soft Egg Crate to control
its spill.
 Look at the mans cheek
closest to the camera, you
can see the effect; the
shadow line running down
the cheek. You may notice
how often you see this in
movies, television, and
photographs.
Full lighting with Soft KeyRifa 88, 1000W
Soft lightRifa with Fabric Egg Crate

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Hard Key Light
 This is an example of a hard Key light. A 250-watt Pro-light is
being used. The transition between the light and dark areas is
more dramatic. If you move the key light until you see a light
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. This 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 face.
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

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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. As a start, find the angle and height for your
Key light that places that shadow
 To make the nose shadow disappear your light is Bad nose shadow
anywhere from directly in front of the subject, to Reduced nose shadow
directly over the camera. You will start to lose the
shadow line on the cheek as you come around.
 Bringing the Key light 'face-on' is effective for
lightening the shadows from wrinkles. Used with
makeup it is even more effective. This position is
very flat 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 Hatchet lighting
center of the face. It can be a dramatic effect
when paired with little or no fill lighting or some
edge lights.

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Simple Light Setups
 Sometimes when power or time limitations are
factors, one light will do the work of both Key
and Fill. Experiment by adjusting the distance
between the light and your subject to achieve
the balance.
 In this example a 500-watt Omni-light with a
umbrella worked well for the single Key / Fill Single light (Omni-light 500 W) with
light and a 125-watt L-light is providing the shine umbrella, positioned to function as Key
on the hair and shoulders, don’t forget to adjust light.
the lights according to your subject. Perhaps
your situation calls for a more or less powerful
bulb or a different fixture. 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.
Single light result

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Fill Light
 The Fill Light is used to lighten shadows and control contrast ratios.
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.

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Fill 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 Fill light alone
soft Egg Crate to control the spill.
 This doesn't just apply to lighting
faces. Anytime you are treating the
left side 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).
Rifa 44, 250W Soft light

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Fill Light Techniques
 When the Fill is directly over the
camera it adds to the Key light's
exposure.
 The near-the-camera position
can be considered when you
want to both fill shadows and still
maintain modeling on the
subject. A B C
A) Lower ratio of Key to Fill light
 As with the Key light you could B) Higher ratio of Key to Fill light
C) Double Nose Shadow
adjust the distance to lessen the
intensity as well as by adding
scrims or neutral density gels to
the light.
 Probably the only wrong way to
do Fill is if it adds another set of
visible shadows.

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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 reflector surface will
soften the reflected light more and give
less chance of secondary shadows.
Specular Reflector bouncing Soft Key light to
Close-up detail
 Using a matte white card will provide a create Fill
very soft reflected fill at close range. You
may have natural fill already happening
from light colored walls reflecting back to
the subject

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Hair Light
 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.

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Hair Light Techniques
 Along with 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.
 If you are dealing with thinning hair or bald heads, you
probably already have enough separation from the
background. See the Edge Light description below for
more information.
 Since all backlights are aimed in the direction of the
camera be careful to keep any light from shining into the
Hair light alone Rifa 44, 250W Soft light
front of the lens, causing lens flare. Wave your hand in
front of the light and see if a shadow falls on the camera.
 With the advent of modern cameras there is less need for
the really heavy use of hair light.

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Edge Light
 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.

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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.
 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
hard sources at different distances and
Edge light alone L-light, 100W
angles. Try using a small light with an
umbrella or with a diffusion gel.

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Background Light
 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.

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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.
 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. Setup with cookaloris pattern
Pro-light, 250W
 Since large broad sources tend to spill on
the background consider using an Egg
Crate on any soft lights you use. Other
lights should all have barn doors to direct
light only where it's wanted.

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Background Light Options
 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
alone in a darker background to
Omni-light 500W focusable
increase its effect. Coloring the slash Setup with Slash Accent
with a gel is also a common approach.

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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.
The result looks like it have
could come from track lighting or Setup with Highlight
a recessed ceiling light, adding to
the natural feel of the effect. AccentL-light with 100W lamp

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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. It provides a contrast of
color and feel between the
environment and the subject. Setup with Color
background
 Use barn doors on the fixture to trim
any spill that may fall on the subject,
as its color will make it very
noticeable. Omni-light 500W focusable

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 http://www.lowel.com/edu/foundations_of_lighting.html
 http://www.lowel.com/edu/