Articles and Lists. Best Free Video Editor. Television Production Lighting: The Key Light. Key Light Considerations As the name implies, the key light is the main light. In terms of coherence or quality the key light should be in the middle of the hard-to-soft range. As you can see from some of the illustrations in these chapters, light that is either too hard or too soft is not desirable for most subject matter -- especially people. This middle ground between hard and soft light is often achieved with a Fresnel light. In three-point (formula) lighting the key light is placed at an angle of between 30- and 45-degrees from either the left or the right of the camera. In the photograph of ▲ the model at the start of the module the key light is on the left, just as it's shown in this drawing.
Forty-five degrees off to one side is best because, among other things, it brings out optimum texture and form (dimension) in the subject. This brings us to the rule we'll need to keep in mind, especially if multiple cameras and camera angles are involved in the production: Keys and Boom Mics. UT Austin Web Video Guidelines - Production. The best lighting technique is 3-point lighting. In 3-point lighting 3 lights are used. A key light, a fill light, and a back light. A key light is the main light that is placed at a thirty to forty-five degree angle in front of the subject and to the side of the camera. The second light in 3-point lighting is the fill light. The fill light is placed on the side of the camera just opposite of the key light. Reflectors can be any object that will reflect light.
The third light in a 3-point lighting system is the backlight. If available, a forth light can be used for a background light. Always light the subject. Studio lighting setup for video recording - Ars Technica OpenForum. Lighting. Better to under-expose or over-expose? - Page 2 - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking. Steve Smith - VIDEOSMITH - Video Lighting - Part One. Three Point Lighting Tutorial. Three lights: the Key Light, Fill Light, and Rim Light (also called Back Light), are adjusted to achieve the classic Hollywood lighting scheme called three-point lighting. This GIF Animation shows the role of the 3 lights. Here's how to set them up in your 3D scenes: 1. Start in Darkness. Make sure there are no default lights, and there's no global ambience. When you add your first light, there should be no other light in the scene. 2. Create a spot light to serve as the Key. The key light is brighter than any other light illuminating the front of the subject, is the main shadow-caster in your scene, and casts the darkest shadows.
NOTE: Be sure to stop and do test-renders here. 3. From the top view, a Fill Light should come from a generally opposite angle than the Key - if the Key is on the left, the Fill should be on the right - but don't make all of your lighting 100% symmetrical! At most, Fill Lights can be about half as bright as your Key (a Key-to-Fill ratio of 2:1). 4. That's it.