3 Point Lighting - has it changed?

[Paul R Johnson]

On another forum - I found a video

YouTube (Short URL)

It runs quite nicely through a number of techniques, but then I realised my version of 3 point lighting is not the same as the current version - found in the video.

Key, Fill and Backlight - same names, but when I first started (TV not movies) the Key was the hard source - and pretty well always a Fresnel, with a real glass stepped lens. The soft source was big thing with a tubular lamp in the base, an asymmetric reflector, then diffusion and probably an egg crate for spill control. Backlight would be central or one either side - often from a variety of sources - redheads commonly for me.

This was different from my theatre lighting - McCandless/Bentham techniques with PC lensed fixtures 45 degrees up and 45 degrees out from centreline. Fresnels were considered as soft lighting as they blended nicely. Floods started to fall out of favour in the 70s for acting area light, but clung on for cloths and curtains.

In the TV studios, it would be loads of Fresnels and Softlights - plus a few capable of projecting gobos or patterns for effect or highlighting. Portable kit was redheads and blondes, with loads of diffuser of all kinds on one of their barn doors to make them soft. Scrims to dim them and I've carried on that version of 3 point lighting oblivious to change.

In the video, hard shadows are consigned to the 'effects' category, and the key is an LED panel, and fill is also an LED panel, but further away and maybe a bit bigger. Light sources are often COB LEDs with soft boxes on Bowen mounts, and space lights dangled down do ultimate soft. Diffuser panels on the keys too, I note. So the key is soft, the soft, softer and backlight still whatever you have left.

In the video we have nice artistic lighting, but shadows are now the enemy. At some point colleges and university stopped teaching the 'old' 3 point lighting techniques, and started the new. Younger people are not aware of the old techniques and the only acceptable lighting now is the new kind.

Watching BBC this morning, Naga on the sofa has my old style look - a nose shadow, and then a near fill in, clear back light and looked pretty good on my TV. In the wide shot, you can see where the key for the presenters hit the edge of the sofa - a shadow clearly on the floor, with a sharp edge.

I totally understand that in something like a cooking show where the talent are anywhere on the set, and cameras can also be anywhere, that you need to blast the set with panels from all directions, just in case - so it's not 3 point or even close, but even illumination.

I've absolutely no beef with the soft look that people clearly like - but was surprised to find that it's still promoted as 3 point lighting. I suppose, of course, it still has 3 source points, but it's a different three point lighting from my one.

As I'm old now - my client base has stabilised, and I don't actively seek new ones, but if I got a call to provide 'simple three point lighting' - I'd give them something very different from the new fresh out of uni people? My 'look' would be very different. I'm guessing it's an age thing - which is fine, but the change has me surprised, but it answers a few questions.

On an equipment front - the new LED kit may have sparked the change? I would really like a couple of Arri L7s I've tried sourcing glass real Fresnel lensed sources that I could afford and have been disappointed with the light output. The 1K Arris really are bright compared to LED, but I don't use them any more because of the heat really. None of my LED sources look as nice though. Video lighting has become stills photo inspired - so little boxes with soft boxes and all kinds of diffusers.

I guess I'm a dinosaur.

[Josh Bass]

Apologies ahead of time—I only skimmed through the post.

From my observations on many sets, people still generally do key/fill/backlight, except the “backlight” is now often a very soft edge light that doesn’t have much “glow”to it, just the tiniest hint of a rim on the fill side of the head and/or shoulders.

Key usually very large soft source with a lot of wrap. Contrast between key and fill up to individual taste but in the case of corporate (majority of my work), very gentle ratios. Generally a high key (or brightly lit overall if we all have different definitions of high key) look favored.

We used to turn all room lights off and light with our movie lights, giving a very contrasty look to the background (which was only lit by a fresnel through a pattern, slash on the wall, glowing gradient that falls off into darkness etc). Now the trend is to leave room lights on and supplement with our movie lights, giving an overall bright look to everything.

Someone explained this to me as “the cameras changed everything.” I.e, used to shoot with small sensors and contrasty lighting for separation. With all the new large sensor cams, the easy shallow depth of field can accomplish that separation for you.


That’s been my experience in Houston. Dont know if that answers your question or not.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

In my mind there are two types of lighting. The first is more stylized where the room lights are off and you can tell the subject and background are being lit.

The other is what I consider a natural style where you are looking to give the appearance you showed up and filmed someone at their location without it appearing to be overly produced. The softness and subtlety of the lights don't draw attention to themselves and the subject feels more at ease not being blasted with lots of light. An average person watching the video would be unaware additional lights were used.

[Josh Bass]

The softer/brightly lit style I’m referring to still (often) uses a ton of lights, flags etc. ( often eliciting the ol’ “WOW THIS IS A BIG PRODUCTION HUH? HAHHAHA” when the talent arrives”), its just that the house/room lights are still left on as well.

[Brian Drysdale]

A lot of these techniques come from cinema and stills photography. You can still have 3 point lighting, but you can have softer lights, these tend to be similar to the light commonly found in nature. You can still have hard light, since it exists in the real world.

The nice thing about softer key lighting is the wrap around that you can get on faces, which subtly reveals the bone structure, because you can place the key further to the side than you can with a hard light.