3 Point Lighting!

This week in my Basic Television Production class, we are learning about three-point lighting! Three-point lighting is a technique used in visual media production that creates depth, dimension, and focus in an image or video. Three-point lighting is a standard lighting setup used in film, television, and photography to add lighting to a subject effectively all while maintaining visual balance. It consists of three important lights, a key light, fill light, and back light. Below is a picture of my subject, and classmate, Makayla surrounded the the three different lights angled on her but turned off.  

The light in front of her is the key light, which is the primary light source, typically angled at a 45-degree angle as well as provide the image majority of the lighting.

The light on her right side is the fill light, which is the secondary light placed on the opposite side of the key light as well as fill in the shadows created by the key light.

And the light behind her is the back light which is used to create a rim  or "ring"of light around the of the subject to separate it from the background; adding depth to the to the image.

Here's a picture of close-up of Makayla with no lighting at all.

Now, here's a picture of her with the first step of the three-point lighting process, the key light.

You can already see how the key light drastically brightened up the photo! By the key light being angled down on her, you can see how the light emphasizes one side of her face yet in totality as well.

Here's a picture of her with the second step of the three-point lighting process, the fill light.

You can see subtly how the fill light added shadows and depth to the right side of Makayla's face. With the use of both the key light and fill light, you can see how the two comes together beautifully to balance each other out.

And lastly, here's a picture of her with the last step of the three-point lighting process, the back light.

Here's the final product! In contrast to the picture above, you can visually see the back light adding more depth to the photo through the "shine" on her, specifically seen in her hair, and the creation that "ring" around her.

The picture that started it all! This is Makayla surrounded the the three different lights angled on her but now, they are turned on.  

See you next week with my final assignment!

Being Reflective!

This week's assignment is to use this production device, a reflector disc, can be used to eith rescue a low or poorly lit lighting situation and demonstrating the noticable difference through six different shots/angles. Above, you can see a little of the light from the sun bouncing off the disc through the help of my fellow classmate, Aaliyah Felder!

Here's a video on how to effectively use them!

As you can see below, we went outside to do the demonstration. 

Here's a picture of me before with natural lighting. 

 

Though I was caught off-guard, you can visibly tell that the lighting would be very poor for an actual production such as a film or news production. I learned in class, this can affect how the camera "sees" you making the photo/video of you darker.

And here's a picture with me with the help of the reflector disc!

 

You can see in this photo brightens my face up which one can assume will help with the lighting on the camera as well. 

Here's another picture of us in action without the use of the disc and natural lighting.

Now, can you see the difference with the use of disc?

 

You can see, through Aaliyah's help of holding the disc, the sunlight bouncing off of the disc a little and adding lighting to my face. Another thing that I learned in this assignment is to be very careful while be effective! Though the reflector disc assists with lighting, it can also be blinding. That is why you see Aaliyah angling the disc so my body can get the light but also being careful enough to not angle it to get in my eyes!

See you next week!