Basic Lighting Set-up

Three point lighting is probably the first thing you will hear on any course or site talking about lighting. This refers to the 3 light sources most commonly used to light a single subject, such as an interview subject. The set-up consists of:

1. A Key Light - This is usually the brightest light on your subject coming from in front of the subject.
   
2. A Fill Light - This light is not as bright as the Key Light and will come from the opposite angle to 'fill' the shadow cause by the Key Light.
   
3. Back Light / Kicker - This light comes from behind and is used to highlight the subject and pick them out from the background. A Backlight is usually directly behind the subject with the light falling on the hair and shoulders. The Kicker is usually 3/4 behind and will creep onto the side of the face.

Now,  there is no right or wrong way to create this set up, you don't even have to use 3 lights. You could use 2 lights and a reflector for fill, such as the diagram below.

We shall go over other lighting methods in the next article.