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LIGHTING STRATEGIES: Placing a Hard Key Light

Here’s typical “Rembrandt-style” hard light on a man. Men can tolerate side light more than women as men tend to be lit for ruggedness whereas women are more often lit for beauty.

Bringing the light around a bit is still quite flattering.

And here’s the dramatic extreme:

This is a great example of how hard light can reveal nose structure. Notice the shadow of the large bump just below the bridge of the nose. On a man this is rugged; on a woman, not so much. As with everything in lighting, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. Be aware and you’ll soon figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Here’s a technique that I learned when Stephen Burum, ASC spoke to my Advanced Cinematography class back in college:

Almost everyone’s face curves. The eye and mouth will be closer on one side of the face than the other. Generally people look better if that side of the face faces the camera and the key light is placed opposite the curve.

You’ll not always be able to block and light shots this way, but being aware of this may help you win the confidence of a difficult actor or actress.

Last but not least, here’s how I determine where other DPs place lights when I watch films and television:

I look in the actors’ eyes. In this case you can see the key light reflected high and to the right in one eye, and the virtual fill light I’ve placed immediately to the left of the camera, at lens height, in both eyes.. Judging light placement can be a bit tricky as the curvature of the eye adds distortion, but with practice you can learn to judge the placement, size and number of sources being used in a shot just by observing reflections in eyeballs.

In my next article we’ll look at soft keys. Until then… play around and see what kinds of faces work with different kinds of light. Every face is different. The trick is that you often can’t tailor your lighting to an individual, but you can learn how to fix common issues when they arise.

Art Adams is a DP who fails to flinch from facial photography. His website is at http://www.artadamsdp.com.

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The Best of Stunning Good Looks Art Adams | 08/30 A directory of my best articles, sorted by topic. This entry is a guide to my best articles, sorted by topic. Enjoy!

NAB 2012: Assorted Snapshots Adam Wilt | 05/08 A few cool things I saw at the show that didn’t fit into any other articles. NAB is too big a show in too short a time to see more than a fraction of it. I’ve covered a few things in some depth (as have other PVC folks), but there’s plenty more that slips by without proper coverage. Here, I have a few photos…

NAB 2012: Trucolor Ohm Space Light Bruce A Johnson | 04/20 400 watts of LED replaces a 6K?  Sounds good to me. Next time you need to flood a room with soft light - in whatever color temperature - you should give the Ohm a look.

You must be registered to comment. This is an effort to reduce spam. Please REGISTER HERE.

Art, I love your posts about lighting. I’m looking forward to more in your Lighting Strategies series.

Question: on page 3, last photo you said, “you can see the key light reflected high and to the right in both eyes”, but I don’t see the key reflected in the subjects right eye (left side of the picture).

From the viewer’s point of view, I see a light reflection point in the upper left of the right eye (subject left eye), which I take to be the key @ 45 degrees to the right. There is no matching spot in the left (subject right eye).

The subject’s right eye has a single light reflection spot which I take to be the fill light. This also appears in the subject’s left eye.

And finally, I’m confused by the shadow cast by the bridge of the nose. It looks like the key is to the right and level or below the subject. But the reflection would indicate that the key is above the subject.

Again, thanks for some great articles that make me pay attention to what I see.

Peace,

Rob:-]

Posted by Rob  on  12/14  at  10:58 AM

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nice soft lighting in the eyes, great tut!

Posted by c4sp3r  on  12/14  at  03:09 PM

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Rob, that’s what we in the industry call a “screw up.” I’ve corrected the text. Thanks for catching it.

Posted by Art Adams  on  12/14  at  05:51 PM

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Yes, “screw up” ... I have participated in one or two of those myself.

Posted by Rob  on  12/15  at  09:07 AM

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