A guide to lighting setups
This is a simple guide to some of the many lighting setups, from ‘main light’ to ‘Rembrandt lighting’. The positioning, quality and temperature of light is one of the most important aspects of our photography and an understanding of these aspects will go a long way to taking your photography from good photography to great photography. Remember these are just the basic foundations of lighting skills and you must practice and learn how to adapt them to suit your creative needs.
Key Light
This is the most important light in the picture and ideally, it is the most visibly present light in the image
Kick Light
Kick lights are another way of highlighting the face (or whatever your subject matter is). Many people will often confuse a kick light with a hair light. The difference is that while a hair light will light up only hair, a kicker can do that, as well as light up a side of the subject’s face. This will create more separation and add definition to the subject’s facial shape.
Hair Light
Hair lights are common spots or gridded/barn-doored lights as we don’t want any spill on the rest of the subject
Fill Light
Fill light is used to decrease contrast on your subject. For example, if your image has shadows that are far too dark, you may want to introduce fill to bring out shadow detail
Rembrandt Lighting
A single, soft, large light source (a window is good for ambient light) with the addition of an optional reflector
Butterfly Lighting
A light source that is positioned close to the camera and high up, usually on a boom arm to stop the stand getting in the way of the image
Ring Lights
A ring light creates quite a unique look and is easy to identify since it creates a circular catch clight in the eyes
Examples of four/five lights setups with gels
This is an example of one of the many variables in lighting setup. The key is to explore ideas that best suit your subject and most of all your style.