Delighting with Three-Point Lighting!

In my television production class at SC State University, we are spending a few weeks on lighting. We covered the use of reflector discs, now we are looking at a mainstay of photography, videography, film, and television: three-point lighting. See this YouTube video for details and tips. 

Essence Adams (right) is at the center of this popular, widely-used lighting concept. You see the video camera's position in front of Essence and the three lights surrounding her. 

Here is another perspective of the lights from behind Delano Whitfield (left). The light in the center, under the clock on the wall, is called the key light.

On the left side of this photograph is the fill light. And the light behind Delano, along the right side of the photo, is the backlight. 

I will explain and show how the lights work in tandem to create a high-quality image of the subject, whether for a yearbook or LinkedIn picture, a TV interview, model shoots, and other scenarios. 

Back to Essence Adams where we see her sitting on the stool without any lights turned on. Essence, I'm pretty sure, does not take a bad picture! But you will see how the lights make her look even more radiant. 

Here is a wide shot showing the three-light arrangement that is about to do its thing. 

So, again, the key light (on the left with the black dome) is positioned at a 45-degree angle from the camera. You do not want it right behind the camera because it could be blinding to Essence. 

KEY LIGHT

Here is Essence with the key light only. You see how it illuminates her face, especially her right side. So there's a big improvement already in the photo/video quality with just the 500-watt key light. 

But notice too how the left side of her face is shadowed. This leads us to the fill light shown in the photo above along the right side. This light should not be as bright as the key light. If it is the same wattage, then the move is to pull it back from the subject because all we want the fill light to do is remove that shadow from the right of Essence's face. 

KEY LIGHT AND FILL LIGHT 

See what I mean? Now the key light and the fill light are both on. See how the light is more evenly distributed? That's the purpose of the fill light. 

Next, we use the backlight. Scroll up a bit to see the wide shot. Note that the backlight is behind the subject on the same side as the key light. 

The key light is raised high so that it points down on the subject to highlight her hair and create better separation from the background. 

KEY LIGHT, FILL LIGHT AND BACKLIGHT

Here is the final photo with all its three-point lighting glory! You see how the backlight gives subtle illumination to Essence's hair and her right side temple area. And I also managed to eliminate the red extension cord seen in the previous photograph. 

Thank you Essence for the modeling! Hope you like your pictures!  

To follow are more examples showing the sequence of three-point lighting. 

Here is Juan Foster with no lighting. 

Just the key light now.

See how the fill light removes the shadow from his left side? Much better, right? 

The backlight completes Juan's portrait. I'm noticing the light on his right ear and beard along that side of his face.  

Here's Delano Whitfield enjoying his time in the bright lights! I actually told him that I thought of asking the students to imitate the figure seen below in a helpful diagram of the three-point lighting arrangement.

Benjamin Gadson has his turn.

Nice three-point shot of BG. 

Kaleb Brown has his time to shine!

Sharlene Luke on the three-point lighting stool. 

Your humble professor took a turn in the spotlight. Here's my three-pointer (left) then after a did a little processing with the Snapseed app.