http://personal-view.com/talks/discussions/tagged/fill/feed.rss Tue, 05 Nov 24 12:42:20 +0000 Tagged with fill - Personal View Talks en-CA http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/1053/fill-light Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:47:46 +0000 Vitaliy_Kiselev 1053@/talks/discussions
Here’s a typical three-point lighting setup. This is both a great learning tool and an awful formula to follow, because while most lighting breaks down into this in one way or another it is severely limiting if this is all you know how to do. Still, it’s a good starting point.





The reason the fill light is at the same height as the key probably stems from early studio cinematography when much of the lighting was placed high in a grid. Beauty lighting was often done from the floor (more on that later) but live television and grand feature film sets were almost always lit from the air.

In this scenario the key light is placed so that the nose shadow falls along the “smile line,” the line between the corner of the base of the nose and the edge of the mouth. The position of that light can make the nose shadow long (connecting to the cheek shadow for classical Rembrandt lighting) for “masculine” lighting or short when lighting for glamor. The fill light was set up opposite the key simply to fill in the shadows left by the key.

In the diagram above, where the key and fill light are the same size but differing intensities, the fill light will cast just as hard a shadow as the key light. The fill light’s shadow will be less obvious because it is less bright but it will still be present. There may be a dark area under the chin where neither light reaches but that can occasionally be helpful in hiding what a friend of mine calls “the gobbler,” pertaining to loose skin that collects under the chins of mature leading ladies.


Read the rest at: http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/aadams/story/fill_light_the_underdog_of_lighting/P0/]]>