Technical - Three-Point Lighting (Group)

What is Three-Point Lighting?

Theory of Three-Point Lighting

In preparation for our thriller opening and by researching other thriller openings, we found that lighting plays a key role within thrillers in order to establish atmosphere and so Evan and I experimented with three-point lighting. Three point lighting is one of the oldest lighting techniques used in shooting video and essentially it consists of three lights - a key light, fill light and back-light.

Experimentation

Key Light ONLY

Key Light: The main source of light. Usually the strongest and it has most influence on the look of the screen and highlights the main, but not all, features. This lighting is more often than not used to expose the whole or most of the scene. Placed on one side, rather than directly, it creates toning a definition to the subject by creating shadow on the opposite third. We found this lighting to be best as it creates a focus for the shot by creating definition to the subject.

Fill Light ONLY

Fill Light: A supplementary light used in photography or filming that does not change the character of the main light and is used chiefly to lighten shadows. This is secondary to the key light and often placed on the opposing side. This lighting is not so harsh and subtly highlights features, exposing the other half of the subject to more lighting. Despite this, we found this lighting to only reveal a faint overlay of the subject as only a small portion of the figure is exposed to light.

Back Light ONLY

Back Light: This light creates lighting from behind the main subject or focus point and is used to add an outline to the image. Opposed to direct lighting, this lighting is often used to add definition to features and highlight features around the subject from behind, highlighting the objects outlines. We found this lighting to be effective but very difficult to use as most of the figure is placed in darkness. 

Key Light AND Fill Light

Key Light, Fill Light AND Back Light 

Conclusion

From this, we have learnt that the positioning of all the lights is a crucial and delicate element of three-point lighting. Simply by misplacing the lights in respect to the subject can make the image appear washed out and seem two-dimensional. In other words, if used correctly, three-point lighting can establish an image by defining main features with shadow, allowing the subject to appear 3D. Moreover, the key light should be placed down first. In so doing, the key light acts as a guideline for the placement of the other lights, which are used to add to the key light and enhance it.

In light of this, we will consider using three-point lighting as a way of establishing enigma and mystery in our thriller opening. A convention of thrillers is that the antagonist is usually revealed at the end and remains in darkness or low light throughout until the end. By using either the fill light or key light, features of the subject are defined whilst other features remain hidden in shadow - thus, creating a sense of unknown and mystery. This would hence help us to develop thriller conventions in our thriller opening. 

For future reference, we also found out that the best placement of the key light is around 40-50 degrees anti-clockwise from the camera, where the right side of the subject is exposed to light. The fill light should be placed 40-50 degrees clockwise and the back light 180 degree directly behind the fill light in order to create the most dramatic effect and establish an enigmatic element to a scene. As key light provides the most definition to the subject, it is vital to focus on the placement of key lighting within a scene.