How to create impact with your lighting

Creative Design Article

Why is it important?

Lighting is one of the most critical aspects when it comes to creating a video or taking a picture because it allows you to set the mood. Poor lighting can make a low-key situation seem too bright, or it can make a light-hearted situation seem more serious than intended. Pinpointing lighting directly on specific objects or people helps persuade the viewers to direct their eyes to the intended spot, which ensures that important aspects of the video are not missed.

How to setup your lights

3 POINTS OF LIGHT

Key light

The key light is typically implemented first, as it is the most direct source of light that will be illuminating the main subject of the scene. Fill lighting and back lighting are very important, but they mostly supplement the key lighting.

Back light

Back lighting is placed behind the main subject. If there's not enough contrast, or if the subject blends in too much with the environment you will not have a clear image. The back lighting is used to illuminate the silhouette of the subject in order to make it stand out.

Fill Lighting

In some places of the scene it will still be too dark, so we put these lights in to cover those gaps, and recreate more contrast with our subject.

Also I use some of this lights to create a scene composition, such a backgrounds, colour contrast and separate the subject from the background.

CONTRAST

Here is an example why I decided to use some Teal colour to create a contrast, as I am the main subject and all the skin colors are located in the orange Color spectrum, the opposite colour to that is the Teal, located within the blues and green. Contrast is one of the defining properties of a video. Contrast can be used to lighten or darken objects and shadows, illuminate subjects or other specific objects, and to create the perfect lighting for faces and close-ups. Poor contrast can make specific actions confusing to the viewer, and can detract from the main subject.