Light that sh*t up!

Lighting is quite possibly one of the most important parts of a film. It's what really gives your films a certain style and edge that is unique to you. Today, I'm going to talk about a basic lighting setup and what you can do to use common household lights.

THREE POINT LIGHTING

Three-point lighting is one of the most common setups to light a subject. 
3 lights are used. Key, fill, and back lights. I will briefly go over the duties of each
Key Light: This is your main and strongest light. It's what ultimately lights our subject and should be off to either the right or left of the front of the subject.

Fill Light: Should be weaker than the key light. The fill light adds light to the shadow areas of the key light. Because the key light is off to the side, part of the face is obstructing the other side that doesn't have the key light. 

Back Light: This light's job is to add separation from the subject and the background. It creates an edge of light around the subject, bringing the subject away from the background.



"But Kevin, I don't have fancy pants LED panels or Kino Flos to use"

Well, that shouldn't stop you my eager beaver!

The great thing about light is that it's all around us! You already have a great source of light, the sun!  The sun can be great for any of these types of lights.

Here, I used the sun as a back light. This makes the subjects pop away from the background. But the sun doesn't have to be restricted to just backlight. It can be the key as well.

But what about a cheap way to get dramatic lighting? This is going to require a trip to Home Depot but can lights! Can lights or clamp lights are lights that you can find for relatively cheap at home depot that uses regular ol' light bulbs. For 6 - 10 dollars per light, you can achieve any basic lighting set up with ease(as long a power source is near). An example from my personal portfolio where one clamp light was hung above the actors.

Not the greatest lighting(I'm to blame for this dim footage, not the light) but I can still break it down. One light hangs above the subjects. This lights the top of his head. If his hat wasn't in the way, the light also light part of his face. However, on the table, I used a white cloth. Using anything like white posterboard or white table clothe can bounce light back. This light bounce partially lights the bottom of the subject's face, giving this dramatic and mysterious look.

Conclusion: At film school, you do have access to all these lights and can do a lot more, however, it's important to know the basics of lighting and knowing that you can achieve something even with the simplest setups. A good practice to do is to turn on all the lights in a room and see what you still need or what you don't need.