Video Lighting: 3 Point Lighting: A Handyman's Guide

Dr. Robert G. Nulph
April 2001

Have you ever spent a quiet afternoon watching how-to handyman shows? Throughout the program, the host walks you through a building project covering everything from kitchen cabinets to special two-seater glide swings. In this month's column, we look at three-point lighting in much the same way. By following our step-by-step method, you should be able to produce quality, professional lighting without the headaches of wondering if you are missing something. We will also include a few special tips to make your lighting projects safer and more effective.

Before you set your lights you need to decide whether you want the key light to be hard or soft and choose the appropriate lighting instruments to give you the desired result. If you want a flattering, warm look, you should use a soft box or diffusion material on your lights. Soft boxes are large lighting accessories that throw a soft, even light on your subject. Soft light smoothes the complexion and softens wrinkles. Hard light casts strong shadows and emphasizes wrinkles and complexion flaws. It can be extremely dramatic because the shadows it can cast around a person's features. Villains or subjects that you want to appear as mysterious are good candidates for this type of lighting. Be careful with this though. You can make a nice person look shifty if you light him with hard light. Beautiful women, professionals and anything you want to be warm, friendly and inviting will look best in soft light.

By using your subject as the center of a clock and the camera as the 6:00 position, you can easily perform a professional setup for three-point lighting. The first light to set should be your key light. This light is your main, most powerful light source. You place the light at either the 7:30 position on the clock or 4:30 position, depending on what side of your subject you want to be dominant.
Raise the key light so that it is shining on the subject from a 45-degree angle above and in front of the subject's face. You can calculate this placement by standing in the subject's position and pointing at a spot in the air halfway between straight out and straight up. Make sure that you focus the light on your subject's face. If he or she has glasses, you may need to raise the light higher than 45 degrees to keep it from glaring off the lenses. If you are looking for a more dramatic effect, move the key light towards the 3:00 or 9:00 positions.

The backlight should be your next concern. Position this light opposite the key at approximately the 10:30 or 1:30 position. Raise the light 45 degrees above the back of the subject's head and focus on his or her shoulders and hair. For the back light, you will want a reflector spot or Fresnel that you can focus. Diffused lights and those lighting instruments that you cannot control do not work well for your backlight because the spill from those lights will cloud your camera lens. For lighter hair and balding subjects, the backlight should be less intense than for people with dark hair. You can lower the intensity of the light by moving it further away or raise its intensity by bringing it closer. Be sure to keep the backlight from shining into your camera lens. If this problem arises, you can place a flag between the backlight and the camera.

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