One Light Wonder (page 2)

One-light Setups

To use one light to create a three-point lighting setup, you have to decide what kind of lighting you need - hard or soft, dramatic or even? With a variety of mirrors, reflectors and bounce cards, you can create a number of different looks. Using mirrors and hard smooth-surface reflectors, you can duplicate the effect of small, hard light sources. Large pebble-surfaced or other textured reflectors and white bounce cards can easily substitute for large soft lights.

If you want a dramatic, shadow-filled look, set up a small intense light at the 4 o'clock position. Set up a mirror behind the right shoulder of the talent and use it to reflect the light towards the back of your talent. A white bounce card set up at the 8 o'clock position will provide a bit of fill light depending on how dramatic you want your scene to be (see Figure 5).

For an even lighting setup with a soft, glamorous look, set up a very intense light behind and slightly above your talent to provide a sharp rim light. Use large gold reflectors or large white bounce cards on each side of the talent to reflect the spill light into the talent's face. Carefully check the lens of your camera and make sure the light from the back light is not hitting the lens. If it is, place a black piece of foamcore in front of and above the camera, just out of the shot, to flag the light from the camera lens (see Figure…