Lighting 101: Intro to Light Placement

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Three point lighting is the most common structure for cinematic lighting in film history. Everywhere we look, we see three point lighting being used on movies both big and small budget. Not everyone uses three point lighting the same way, but nearly every light placement can fit into one of the three placements of three point lighting. Knowing the basics of three point lighting will help you to better understand film lighting as a whole, and strengthen your ability to communicate your cinematic vision! Today on 4 Minute Film School, we go over the fundamentals of three point lighting and show you how you can take your footage to the next level, using these basic tips.

In this video, Matt from the A-Team shows us the various options you have within a three point lighting setup. He also goes over the names of each light and how they can be used in a scene. First, he goes over the general location of each of the lights in the three point setup; as well as the names given to each light. Next, he shows examples of what lights look like from different angles around the subject, and how they fit into the three point lighting structure. Lastly, he demonstrates how using three point lighting choices can help a subject pop within a scene.

The main lights used in a three point lighting setup are the key light, the fill light, and the backlight. The key light is the main light used to see your subject. This light is often the brightest and shows the most of the subject’s face. The fill light is designed to fill in the shadows made by the key light and fill out the face. It is usually on the other side of the face and not as bright as the key light. The backlight is any light coming from behind the subject. Backlights can come in many different styles but anything that hits the subject from behind can be considered a backlight.

Lighting and cinematography can be very complicated. There are so many different ways of lighting a scene, and with the possibility of light coming from every angle, keeping track of the different lights can be difficult. With this video, we hope to simplify things a little bit, and help you better understand which light is doing what and how to use them to create great images. The lighting is just as important as the camera and the actors. These tools give you as even greater ability to shape the lighting to tell your story.

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Aputure's YouTube channel provides free high-quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.

[RajaMusicTV]

A someone who went into this video knowing literally nothing about lighting, this was enormously helpful. Thank you!

[SlushieTee]

My favorite is the style of Roger Deakins with low key lighting and using one light that truly mimics the real life situation. Blade Runner 2049, Skyfall, 1917 are all great examples

[wondersnassiri]

I love that you go into all of the variations of 3-point lighting! You’re right, there isn’t a “right way” to do it, but I’ve taken so many classes where they basically say “key-fill-back and you’re done.” I love just having a soft key and a hard hair light. I’ve done so many headshot sessions where those two lights were sufficient and gave a nice dramatic but overall full look. Great content as always, and great job, Matt!

[giordiserafini_]

Lately when shooting outside I’ve been using the sun as a backlight, with just a fill card in front to bring up the subject’s face. Low budget option that works pretty nice 👍

[bwhog]

This is probably the best short summary of lighting that I've seen! It also demonstrats that lighting isn't about eliminating shadows. It's about *controlling* shadows so that they are where we want them and with the right amount of darkness (aka contrast). As he said, you reduce the fill light so you don't flatten out the image. This happens because the shadows go away and there is no longer enough contrast. How much or how little you need depends on the effect you are trying to create (which also has to do with the amount and type of background lighting, if any, that you use). In one respect, you could say that this is exactly what the highlight on the shoulders does. It eliminates the shadows from the top of the shoulder and hair so they separate from the background. That it does this by over lighting (highlighting) the edge of your subject, in that sense, is just another tool for creating contrast.

[dustrius]

This has to be the most straightforward explanation of lighting I've seen, hands down. I buckled in to watch some other dude's 3h tutorial and literally fell asleep as he simply demonstrated a bunch of different lights with little discernable difference between them(???). Production quality was high, but he lost me in the weeds. This was succinct, and told me everything I need to know to ACTUALLY START. Omg, thank you so much.

[JimmyVargasOnline]

I generally like doing High Key soft lighting. I put a 300D as key through a huge octagon soft box, 120D as fill through a 2X3 soft box, and a 120D with 2X fresnel as the rim/kicker light.. while using two other lights for ambient, background light. But honestly, my favorite kind of lighting is lighting to the mood of the story or the shot. As you have shown here. I like the ability to adjust my lighting to create different styles, feel and look. And with the remotes that come with Aputure lights, it's easy to do that quickly, by dimming or pressing the off button. Also, it has an adapter that works with all my modifiers..so I can quickly change the soft box for smaller reflector, honeycomb scrims, snoots, or fresnel. So my favorite kind of lighting is the one you can mold. And the clear understanding of 3 point lighting is exactly that. Good job of quickly and clearly showing it here. It usually takes others a lot longer to explain.

[allieseibert]

Side lighting is my go-to for horror, drama, and/or pulling off a cinematic effect with fewer lights. I picked up the trick from theater lighting where they use side lighting for dance and physical scenes to accentuate actors' forms. Pull one rim light slightly forward and the opposing one slightly back and you can show off a subjects full form in an interesting and compelling way! And I love that you guys covered it here too!

[jasoncox]

This topic has been covered a million times, but this video is fast and clearly explains the differences and when to use. I’ve been liking the soft top light with rim light in my work.

[SHEAdTeeVee]

In my shooting style, the hair light/backlight is the most important and most overlooked. Being able to pull the subject off the background is what differentiate a normal shot from a cinematic one. It also gives me a chance to play with motivation of other lights in the background, or get creative and add color to the scene in the hairlight without being overpowering. A nice soft booklight to wrap the face as a key light finishes the the shot.

[fitlovepower]

Favorite light combination is normally 2-3 point lighting a light directly in front as key, then fill light on side, and a practical in background with RGB. When doing two point will just have key and a practical.

[thetentaclemonsters]

This was the best video about lighting I have seen yet! Covered many scenarios.

[kaihongngai]

the best of lighting video I watched so far, straight to the point with good examples, respect

[Jones_Media]

Love this series ! Can’t get enough 🙏🏽
My favorite lightning is 2 light ( key and back fill and bounce if needed ) easy for run and gun documentaries 👌🏽

[onestopwebsites]

Gotta love that rim light, instantly makes most scenes look more cinematic!

[ianmeechan]

I like backlit with just a fill that was used a lot in Alien Covenant. i love the way Ridley Scott cinematographer used the lighting to create the atmospheric feel to the movies he makes. Loved the tutorial video too.

[zekhor]

Really appreciate the info given in this video! My go-to-light setup for now is main key light, with reflector the other side and background placing a fill light to make it interesting and separate the subject with background!

[kartikeyabhalla]

This video is like a lighting cheat sheet. Almost everything condensed into 4 mins. Super. I'm currently tripping on rim/backlighting. Never realized how imprtant and powerful it is for separation. I think Given the size of the Aputure MC one could just stick it behind a lot of subjects to get some really cool shots.

[KinemaReviews]

My favorite light combination... I like placing lights behind a window blind, it creates a very interesting shadow on the subject's face.

[omegaman]

This is a great crash course on lighting. Studio work has a beauty of its own.