Effective Lighting

Obviously, good lighting is critical if you expect good video. Poor lighting will result in the loss of detail and, in extreme cases, causes graininess of the finished video. Most viewers will focus on the lighting of your subject's face. If you make sure your key subject's face is well-lit, then you will succeed. The fluorescent lighting in most classrooms may be adequate; however, even in a brightly lit room there may be problem areas that require avoidance or correction with external lighting. Make sure the lighting is not all coming from the same direction or the subject may appear to be flat, without depth. This is especially not flattering for the subject. Adequate lighting in a room with good overhead lighting can be had by paying attention to the positioning of your camera and subjects.

3-Point Lighting

If you are capturing an interview or close up of an individual, a more elaborate lighting system can help. Just lighting the human face can look rather flat. Adding depth to the shot can be accomplished by differentiated lighting on the two sides of the face and on the background behind the subject.

The Key Light

The key light is the primary source of illumination in a scene. It may be the sun, light from a window, or a spot light. The key light in a studio is often located at a 45 degree angle from the camera/subject horizontal line and also at a 45 degree angle vertically above the same line. The key light is usually the brightest of the light sources. It may have a translucent cover to soften the light.

The Fill Light

The fill light is selected to fill in the shadows caused by the key light The goal is to reduce the contrast ratio. The fill light is usually 90 degrees to the side of a line between the key light and subject.

The Backlight

The backlight comes from behind the subject. It helps separate the subject from the background. The back light may be on the wall or often illuminates the back of a person's head. If you plan to do a great deal of video projects that involve interviews or close ups of speakers facing the camera, you may want to establish a simple studio with 3 point lighting.

Shooting Outside

Shooting medium to close shots of people in full sunlight can be a challenge. The harshness of the light can leave deep shadows on the face or leave faces too dark as the camcorder's auto focus responds to bright sunshine. It is best to shoot in diffused sunlight. This can be accomplished by looking for shade or by shooting in the early morning, late afternoon, or on a cloudy day. Professionals actually use a cloth diffuser between the sun an their subjects.

Using a Reflector

Whether you are inside or outside, you may want to keep a piece of white foam core available to reflect light on to your subject. If you only have one key light (the sun, a window) then the using a reflector on the opposite side of you subject can create a fill light removing objectionable shadows.

Lighting Extremes

Pay attention to the overall differences in lighting in the view finder. Remember your auto exposure, for most cameras, looks at the average brightness of the whole field of view to determine how much light it captures. If there are lots of white or bright lights, then your subject's face may be under exposed.

More lighting examples: THE KEY LIGHT
Credits to Andrew Whitehurst

  By placing the key light above and to the left we can see the volume of the oranges (i.e. that they're spherical). We can also see that they are on the floor by the shadows cast and that they are stacked on top of each other. However the image is lacking detail in the shadow regions and is a bit brutal. In order to fix this we need to add another light to the right of the oranges to add some illumination to those darkened areas. This light is called the FILL LIGHT. Let's look at what this light contributes to the scene.

THE FILL LIGHT

  The job of the fill light is to illuminate those areas of the image which are in shadow when the key light is placed. It should be pretty obvious therefore that the fill light is placed after and in relation to the key light. As the job of the fill is only to allow us to see a little more detail it should not be as intense as the key light. Look at this example; the key light is about 2-3 times brighter than the fill. Let's take a look at how the key and fill light work together.

KEY AND FILL

  The image now looks a lot better than it did with just a key light. The image has more depth and detail. It is neither too dark, nor too washed out. However there is something more we can add. The right side of the oranges are getting a little lost against the background. In order to counteract this we can add a RIM LIGHT.

THE RIM LIGHT

  The rim light is placed behind the objects being illuminated and is angled so that the light glances off the surface of the object at the narrowest angle. The intensity of this light is often quite high, often brighter than the key. Due to its intensity and placement it creates a line of bright light around the object and in doing so lifts the object away from the background. The rim light is principally used to ensure that a dark object does not blend in with a dark background. OK now the lighting is complete let's examine the finished result.

THE FINISHED RENDER

  The rim light has lifted the oranges away from the background, the orange at the bottom right was in danger of disappearing into the background but is much better modelled now. The image still has contrast and a good range of tones from black through to white. The floor shadows and the shadowing of one orange onto another are still there showing each object's relationship to the next, but you can see detail even in the shadow areas on the fruit. All that's left to do is a little bit of tweaking in post.

THE FINISHED IMAGE

  By adding a subtle glow to the strongest high-lights (those created by the rim light) and by softening the image to limit that super-crisp "CG look" the image can be improved a little more. You can tweak an image indefinitely like this by adding noise and so on but I've decided to leave it like this.

The Standard 3-Point Lighting Technique

The Three Point Lighting Technique is a standard method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. It is a simple but versatile system which forms the basis of most lighting. Once you understand three point lighting you are well on the way to understanding all lighting.

The technique uses three lights called the key light, fill light and back light. Naturally you will need three lights to utilise the technique fully, but the principles are still important even if you only use one or two lights. As a rule:

• If you only have one light, it becomes the key.
• If you have 2 lights, one is the key and the other is either the fill or the backlight.

	Key Light This is the main light. It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that this side is well lit and the other side has some shadow.
	Fill Light This is the secondary light and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key. To acheive this, you could move the light further away or use some spun. You might also want to set the fill light to more of a flood than the key.
	Back Light The back light is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.