What is Three-Point Lighting?
 |
| Theory of Three-Point Lighting |
In preparation for our production and by researching real media texts, we found that lighting plays a key role within the visual aesthetics of music videos in order to establish atmosphere. As a result, we experimented with three-point lighting. Three point lighting is one of the oldest lighting techniques used in shooting for videos and essentially it consists of three lights - a key light, fill light and back-light.
Experimentation
 |
| Key Light ONLY |
Key Light: The main source of light. Usually the strongest and it has most influence on the look of the screen and highlights the main, but not all, features. This lighting is more often than not used to expose the whole or most of the scene. Placed on one side, rather than directly, it creates tone and adds definition to the subject by creating shadow on the opposite third. We found this lighting to be best as it creates a focus for the shot by creating definition to the subject. For our music video we feel this will be our predominant lighting technique and will help to create a contrast of light and dark. This will reinforce our genre by looking dark and 'grimy'. What's more, this was most effective and from audience research this was favoured above the rest.
 |
| Fill Light ONLY |
Fill Light: A supplementary light used in photography or filming that does not change the character of the main light and is used chiefly to lighten shadows. Secondary to the key light, often placed on the opposing side. This lighting is not so harsh and subtly highlights features, exposing the other half of the subject to more lighting. Despite this, we found this lighting to only reveal a faint overlay of the subject as only a small portion of the figure is exposed to light. Hence, as we are filming in dark spaces such as a suburban London estate and a music booth, this lighting would not be chiefly effective and therefore will not use this so much throughout our production. We may experiment with this, combined with a back light when taking photos for our magazine cover and digipak.
 |
| Back Light ONLY |
Back Light: This light creates lighting from behind the main subject or focus point and is used to add an outline to the image. Opposed to direct lighting, this lighting is often used to add definition to features and highlight features around the subject from behind, highlighting the objects outlines. We found this lighting to be effective but very difficult to use as most of the figure is placed in darkness. However, this overlaying darkness helps to establish a sense of mystery and echoes the darker messages of the grime genre of music. This is also perhaps reminiscent of the underground London roots of the genre. I look forward to experimenting further with this when it comes to taking shots for our magazine promo cover and digipak.
 |
| Key Light AND Fill Light |
 |
| Key Light, Fill Light AND Back Light |
From this, we have learnt that the positioning of all the lights is a crucial and delicate element of three-point lighting. Simply by misplacing the lights in respect to the subject can make the image appear washed out and seem two-dimensional. In other words, if used correctly, three-point lighting can establish an image by defining main features with shadow, allowing the subject to appear 3D which is vital for the visual aspects of our music video and print products. Moreover, the key light should be placed down first. In so doing, the key light acts as a guideline for the placement of the other lights, which are used to add to the key light and enhance it.
In light of this, we will consider using three-point lighting as a way of establishing mystery and darkness in our music video as this is conventional of the grime genre. A convention of grime music is that the videos are often set in darker suburban London as to echo its working-class roos and be accessible to its heavily working-class audience. By using either the fill light or key light, features of the subject are defined whilst other features remain hidden in shadow - thus, creating a sense of unknown and mystery. This would hence help us to develop grime conventions in our music video and print products. Similarly, by using a stronger and brighter back light we could create a sense of hope and optimism that comes hand-in-hand with the genre.
For future reference, we also found out that the best placement of the key light is around 40-50 degrees anti-clockwise from the camera, where the right side of the subject is exposed to light. The fill light should be placed 40-50 degrees clockwise and the back light 180 degree directly behind the fill light in order to create the most dramatic effect and establish an enigmatic element to a scene or shot. As key light provides the most definition to the subject, it is vital to focus on the placement of key lighting in production.
This form of cd cover would be produced by those who can afford the machinery required and are therefore able to produce their own CD's resultantly. This method has probably been used more freely in the modern day with the progression of household technology. Of course media companies could produce such CD's and make the music memorable to their target audience. I would finally argue that it completes the product too. I suppose the startup cost for this form of manufacturing would be high and target an according audience.
