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The Standard 3-Point Lighting Technique
Sun, 2007-09-23 01:16 — udijw
One of the oldest lighting techniques in the book is called "Three Point Lighting". It is vastly used in studio photography and by snobby fashion photographers. It is also a very good basis for any portrait photograph. In this technique you use three lights:
The first light is a key light. Usually this is the strongest light and this light sets the lighting of the scene.
The second light is called a fill light, this light helps fill the shadows that the main light casts.
The last light is called a backlight (because it comes from the back), and is used to create a contour and separation. It is common to use a snoot or a gridspot on the backlight to avoid a spill.
The guys at mediacollege have created a nice illustration and explanation of that basic technique. They have also created a cool flash simulator (After writing this, I've noticed that this is a pan, so no credits here. Kudos for the great pan) that can help understand the concept of a three point lighting. Or you can just click the various lights and enjoy seeing how the model reacts to each type of light. The flash simulator is also good way to understand key light and backlight in general.
While in general the guys (or girls, I don't know who works there) deal with video, the lighting stuff is great for still photographers as well.
Related links:
- Media college lighting tutorials
- Flash Simulator
- Homemade snoot
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Comments
Key Light
I'm just beginning to learn about studio lighting and had a simple, newbie question. Is the key light diffused at all? Or is it full strength?
Re: Key Light
Hi Bryan,
The amount of diffusion is an artistic decision taken by the photographer, and there is no "right and wrong" here.
However, for flattering portraits that you usually see on on senior books and such, the main light is pretty diffused. Either using a big softbox or an octagon softbox.
the fill light is sometimes diffused using a smaller softbox and the hair light (or back light) is gobo-ed with a snoot or a grid.
- udi
If you don't mind another
If you don't mind another newbie question....
I was told that using lights is a good basic option for shooting portraits, however if I wanted to shoot portraits of my kids or dogs and such, I would be better off using strobes. (Or flashes..)
I currently have a 580ex II flash and was looking at getting one or two more flashes to complement it, however when looking at the lighting setups for the this standard 3 light setup, it seems that it isn't correct to have a flash mounted on a camera...
Is there a way to setup the Key, fill and backlights with flashes (I was thinking of the 420/430ex flashes to complement the 580ex so that they can all do wireless... however after much reading i'm not sure if that would even work as all the flashes have to "see" eachother. and I was thinking of using umbrellas or softboxes with the flashes... )
am I making this more complicated than it is??
or is using flashes the wrong way to go?
I was hoping to use the flashes so that I wouldn't have to worry about light metering and such (as I don't really know how to do that..)
Thanks in advance!
Right on the dot
Your thoughts on off camera flash are right on the dot.
Actually most good lighting for portraits, and other pictures too is done using off camera lighting.
There are three sites you must check out for great lighting techniques:
- Sublime Light
- Strobist
- Lighting Essentials
You will soon learn the you are probably off to a good buy. You will need a way to trigger those baby off the camera, though. looks Google for cactus flash remotes.
- Udi
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