Technical Instruction | Lighting

Today we had sessions based around lighting, 3-Point lighting specifically. This was to help aid us in our new dialogue scene recreation project.

3-Point Lighting consists of three main light sources; key, fill and back.

The key light's main purpose is to bring light directly towards your main subject so that whatever you're filming, the subject is well illuminated. However, the key light should not be placed directly in front of your subject but instead angled off to the side slightly. Although this light may light everything effectively you still want to use it in conjunction with the fill and back lights.

The fill light's purpose is to fill the dark side of your subject. This allows you to control the overall feel of your shot. Having a dim fill light will create a more harsh type of shadow similar to what you would see in a thriller or film-noir style film. Having more fill will help create a more even look to your subject.

The back light enables you to add more depth and dimension to your shot as it helps separate your subject from the background.

Here is an example of how the 3-Point lighting system is used in films:

RED = KEY LIGHT

BLUE = FILL LIGHT

YELLOW = BACK LIGHT

We also had a technical instruction session on lighting. This was to help us learn how to use lighting to achieve certain looks. This was to go along side our new project of a dialogue scene recreation. It was very useful to see a demonstration on how to use lights as I had never done anything using artificial lighting. We were shown tips on how to bounce light of certain surfaces and how to correctly set exposure.