3 - Point Light Notes

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There is a myth that has been viral since before the dawn of digital video. The myth goes something like this: since cameras are so sophisticated today, and so light sensitive, and since you can fix anything in post-production, the lighting doesn’t matter anymore in video. Don’t you believe it, though.
Consider a video picture, or any other picture for that matter, consists of three things:
a)•light,
b)•dark (absence of light) and
c)•color (tinted light).
That’s all a picture is, just light. To say the lighting is irrelevant is to deny the artist a vital - and powerful communications tool.
Cameras today are incredibly sophisticated and light sensitive, and can yield exceptionally beautiful pictures with available light.
Because Manhattan is an urban environment, most available light indoors stinks for video. Typically, the light is from directly above, causing glowing foreheads and deep, dark eye sockets. Without supplemental lighting, your location videos can look pretty grim.
In nature available light can be fickle, and can change in an instant. This is why movie crews that you see on the street have huge lights set up in broad daylight – if the sun goes away, they can bring it back with a 50,000 watts and an amber gel.

Three point light attempts to simulate the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional medium, such as a canvas, a photo print, a movie or video screen. It is the basis of all film television and photography lighting. The fundamentals of three-point light are evident in many renaissance-era paintings (and in some earlier examples from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt.) The ‘masters of light’: Vermeer, Caravaggio, DaVinci, etc. understood how capturing the light could make an image pop right out of a canvas with dramatic realism, and how light could bring their often plain-looking subjects to life.

Remember, there is no one-size-fits-every-situation solution or formula, just general principles and guidelines. Every shoot is different, every face is different, and therefore every lighting situation is unique. The way a scene is lit can sometimes communicate as much as the dialogue - often this is the case in both Hollywood drama and daytime television drama.
The image captured by the camera is influenced by not only the lights but also by the camera’s iris, shutter speed, gain settings, etc. here’s a quick and dirty guide to where to set them:
• Iris: close down the iris until all of the faces in the frame are not overexposed. When in doubt, underexpose a little.
• Shutter Speed: always at 60, unless you are shooting a hockey game.
• Gain: should be as low as possible, as more gain adds grain and degrades colors (0db is normal, +16db is high). Low gain requires more light. As in nature and traditional photography, more light results in more vivid colors (this is why painters want a studio with great light). Many videographers prefer to shoot at -3db to get extra-stable color.
• White Balance: always set the white balance to the light that is falling on the subject’s face. I sometimes use the presets, tungsten or fluorescent, when appropriate.


Key Light: main light that falls on a subject. Key light is sometimes the strongest light source, but by definition it must be stronger than the fill light. The key light is the one that sets the character of the lighting design. This is the light that will literally highlight your subject’s features. Often key light is used for dramatic effect; for instance a key light from below gives an unnatural, mysterious or other-worldly look and has been utilized in crime, horror and fantasy films since the silent era.
A key light is typically hung approximately 30 degrees above the subject’s eye level, and anywhere from ten degrees to 90 degrees to one side (though thirty degrees off axis is a typical portrait lighting setup).
A key light needs to be somewhere off-axis with the camera, otherwise the light becomes very flat, with harsh shadows right under the nose and chin, similar to flash-photo lighting.
When possible, the light source is controlled with barn doors, which can help put light exclusively on your subject, and can keep light off any walls or objects in the background.
A key light can be focused light directly from the lamp or instrument, but portrait and video lighting often employs diffusion, reflected light, and bounced light to spread the light source, resulting in a ‘softer’ light falling on the subject.
Diffusion is achieved with frosted gels or ‘spun’ fabric gels attached to the instrument’s barn doors with wooden clothespins. These gels will cut down the effective light being delivered to the subject. Each gel has a value such as 1/8, ¼ or ½, referring to the amount of light the gel can be expected to lose.
Reflected light is usually achieved with umbrellas or other specialized reflectors. Umbrellas, because of their parabolic shape, focus the reflected light on a subject. Lowell lights are built with a mount for their ultra-lightweight umbrellas.
Folding reflectors, typically 12” to 36” discs with changeable lightweight skins that can be reversed, for varying degrees and qualities of reflection.
Bounced light is achieved with a large white card (usually foam core or ‘gatorboard’) or by merely aiming the light at a white wall or ceiling. This gives an exceptionally flat or even lighting to an entire room (though without the ability to really control where the light falls – it falls everywhere!
This method is particularly effective in small rooms where setting up three light stands would be impossible.)

Fill Light: this light, coming from a different angle, will fill in the dark shadows in the areas not covered by the key light. The fill light is by definition somewhat weaker than the key light, and a lower-wattage instrument may be used. For a portrait or beauty shoot, the fill light is typically positioned somewhat lower than the key light, anywhere from eye level to about twenty degrees above. The fill also needs to be on the opposite side of the key light; if the key is on the right, the fill needs to be on the left.
Colored gels can add subtle effects when used on fill lights.

Back Light: this is the light that falls on the subject’s hair and shoulders, and is important in giving a two-dimensional television picture a pronounced third dimension. Backlight is also frequently used to accent hair. When a subject with black hair is wearing a black suit against a black curtain, backlight will separate Roy Orbison’s hair and suit from the curtain.
The Backlight is typically at a forty-five degree angle above the subject’s head. Fashion shoots sometimes position a backlight directly in back of a model, below the head, to give a dramatic halo to a hairstyle.
Colored gels on backlights are effective tools in setting mood. Blue is often used to simulate moonlight (even though moonlight is actually more sepia colored); other gels can simulate sunlight or urban streetlamps.