You can put the key light off to one side of the subject, nearly straight out to the side, and illuminate only half of their face. If you’re feeling creative, try placing the key light at different angles and elevations. This lights the far side of the subject’s face and causes your subject to look toward the left side of the frame, because that’s where the interviewer is. Then have the the interviewer sitting to the left of the camera’s position, and then have the key light to the left of the interviewer (assuming the interviewer is off camera). If you were in an interview situation, you would place the camera first. Incidentally, this style of lighting is called “short lighting” because if you divide the subject’s face in half with an imaginary line, this kind of lighting illuminates the short side of the face, leaving the broad side of the subject’s face (the side of the face closest to the camera) in shadow. In this case, you would put the key light on the left side of the video camera as well. Imagine that you’re shooting video of a standard talking head, and they're facing the left side of the frame. Whichever way the subject is facing in the frame, put the key light on that side of the camera. First, let’s cover the common placement of the key light, and then let’s cover some more creative fun placements.Ī good rule of thumb if you’re trying to create a standard look. You can get as creative as you want with this. Which side of the camera should you place it on? It depends on the look you’re going for. You can place it anywhere you want, but a common placement is about 45 degrees to either side of the camera, and about 45 degrees up from the subject. The purpose of the key light is to put the light on the subject. When I’m arranging lights, I like to place the key light first because it’s the main one, and I use the rest of the lights to “support” the key light. The Key Light is the Main Light in a 3 Point Lighting Setup The Back Light - This is used to separate the subject from the background.The Fill Light - The purpose of this light is to fill in the shadows created by the key light, preventing them from getting too dark.The Key Light - This is the main light used on your subject.What are the three points of light we’re talking about? While you can create dimension a number of different ways, there’s no doubt that using light and shadow is a powerful way to accomplish this, and three point lighting is the lighting technique most commonly used. The goal of three point lighting is to create the illusion of a three-dimensional subject in a two-dimensional image. It's not as difficult as you might think to use the 3 point lighting technique, and in this article, I'll share with you what I've learned. It has the power to transform an otherwise boring and flat image into a dynamic interesting image with a subject that “pops”. It’s a good idea to become comfortable with three point lighting because as a video shooter, you’ll find yourself using it over and over again. Three point lighting is the standard lighting technique used in video.

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