• The 4 lights Key, Fill, Hair, & Edge, form the basics of a well lit portrait.

• In window lighting, concepts of contrast and light angles were often influenced by the light coming in a window.

•The north-light window attempt to emulate a classic look.

• Key Light is the primary or dominant source of light in a shot.

• It often suggests an out of frame source.

• Choice of fixture (hard or soft) and its position will help set the mood of the shot.

There is a shadow line running down the cheek and this is often seen on television and in the movies.

Full lighting with Soft KeyRifa 88, 1000W Soft lightRifa with Fabric Egg Crate

Simple Light Setups

• We are using a 250-watt Pro-light to create hard key light .The transition between the light and dark areas is more dramatic.

• If you move the key light until you see a light triangular patch under the near eye, you've achieved what is referred to as Rembrandt lighting.

• When you practice placing the Key light on your subject, keep an eye on the shadow it creates from the nose.

• Now try placing your light so the nose shadow is nearly gone

•Bringing the Key light 'face-on' is effective for lightening the shadows from wrinkles.

• Another look is what is sometimes called Hatchet lighting when the shadow line runs right down the center of the face.

Bad nose shadow Reduced nose shadow Hatchet lighting

• Fill light is used to lighten shadows and control contrast ratios (the ratio of amount of Key to Fill light).

• Combined with the Key light, Fill light helps define the mood by lighting the shaded areas in a range of intensities.

• It can vary from none, to a level equaling the Key light.

• In the setup shown in the viewer at the beginning of this lesson, we have chosen a Rifa-lite 44 soft light, with a 250-watt bulb, with a soft Egg Crate to control the spill.

•Anytime you are treating the side left shaded by the Key light you are working on the Fill.

•The amount of Fill that is added depends on your taste and keep in mind the 'look' you are attempting

•Generally you can most easily alter the mood of a shot by raising and lowering the intensity of the Fill

Fill light aloneRifa 44, 250W Soft light

• When the Fill is directly over the camera it adds to the Key light's exposure so consider adjusting for it. You will most often need a less intense light for the Fill side.

•Fill light is usually a soft source so using an umbrella or a softbox is common.

•Probably the only wrong way to do Fill is if it adds another set of visible shadows; visible to the camera that

Lower ratio of Key to Fill light

Higher ratio of Key to Fill light

Double Nose Shadow

• A second small light from behind to add a little shine to the hair adds a finishing touch.

•This setup is providing the shine on the hair and shoulders.

• Get the feel of working with a small hard source (you can really see where those shadows are) and then perhaps add an umbrella and see that by increasing the relative size of the light source you increase its softness.

Single light (Omni-light 500 W) with umbrella, positioned to function as Key light, with enough softness to also act as Fill light.Single light result

• Another method of providing Fill is by bouncing the Key light off of a reflector.

• A specular reflector (the shiny hard side) will kick back nearly as much light as the Key light shining on it, in the same degree of hardness that strikes it.

• Using a matte white card will provide a very soft reflected fill at close range

Specular Reflector bouncing Soft Key light to create FillCloseup detail

• Hair light is a light from behind the subject, often weaker than the Key or Fill, aimed at the head & shoulders.

• It creates a sense of separation between subject and background, and adds highlights & shine to hair, and is often widened to include a subject's shoulders.

• Traditionally Hair lights are placed directly opposite the camera. It creates highlights and gives a nice shine to the hair

• If you are dealing with thinning hair or bald heads, you probably already have enough separation from the background; either because of the contrast or color differences, and only want to play with adding a subtle edge to the side of the head and neck.

• You may just need an edge on the shoulders of a dark garment that is blending into the background.

• For shiny heads you could have separate lights for each shoulder or put up a traditional hair light and block, or flag, the part of the light falling on the head.

Hair light aloneRifa 44, 250W Soft light

• Edge light is a light from behind the subject, often weaker than the Key or Fill, is placed to create an edge of definition between subject and background

• Similar in practice to Hair light, it is also a form of backlight normally used to define one dark object from another, for example a dark jacket from a similarly dark background.

• Edge lights create subtle defining 'edges', and line-like highlights, which can be added to your setup to delineate the edge of your subject.

•If your subject's dark hair or jacket seems to blend into a similarly dark background you can add an 'edge' to visibly separate, or cut them away, from the background.

• To experiment with these effects start with small fixtures and keep an eye on the shadow from the subjects ear.

•Edge lights are also aimed in the direction of the camera, so be careful to keep any light from shining into the front of the lens, causing lens flare.

Edge light aloneL-light, 100W

• Background Light is used for lighting the background of a set, as a whole or specific areas. Or for lighting objects in the background of the set that are significant to the image. It also contributes to creating separation between subject and background.

• How you deal with backgrounds depends on whether it is part of the story or just a neutral setting for your subject.

•For the setup used in the Viewer above, we created a mottled shadow pattern on the background by shining a hard light through a cookaloris (a random pattern cut into wood, foamcore, or black foil)

• By the time you've put up your Key, Fill, Hair and Edge lights you might have light bouncing off the walls and ceiling lighting up the background too muchSetup with cookaloris patternPro-light, 250W

Setup with cookaloris patternPro-light, 250W

• Slash Accent

• It is also common to 'treat' the background using a slash of light made by putting two barndoors close together on a hard light source.

• You can mix the slash with general background fill, making it less prominent, or use the slash accent alone in a darker background to increase its effect.

Setup with Slash AccentOmni-light 500W focusable

Above is a slash created by a focusable Omni-light.

• A more practical approach to adding visual interest to the background would be to add a highlight to an object in the setting.

• In this setup, the hard light character of the lamp created a sharp shadow.

•The result looks like it have could come from track lighting or a recessed ceiling light, adding to the natural feel of the effect.

Setup with Highlight AccentL-light with 100W lamp

• A popular technique in news magazine format TV over the past 10 years has been to give the background a more obviously treated / theatrical effect. It provides a contrast of color and feel between the environment and the subject.

•Use barn doors on the fixture to trim any spill that may fall on the subject, as its color will make it very noticable.

Setup with Color backgroundOmni-light 500W focusable