Lighting setups

Main light and fill light and the main lighting components that work together for most portrait setups, you can also add an ‘accent’ light if you have a third light

t he main light (or key light) is the unit that lights up the most important part of your subject, giving it its shape and depth.

It’s usually aimed at the front plane of the subject’s face, often partially or entirely lighting the upper body. It’s always the first light to be considered and positioned in the lighting setup, and can be placed at any distance from the subject and matched to a variety of modifiers – such as softboxes, beauty dishes or brollies – to affect the intensity, direction, shape, colour, and harshness of the light.

Main light

In the first image (opposite page, top-left) the light unit is positioned about 45° around the subject’s right-hand side, slightly higher than eye level, and pointing down toward her. From this angle, the light is able to reach and brighten the whole of the face as well as the upper body, but creates visible shadows on the opposite side.

Because the light is equipped with a beauty dish (a shallow parabolic disc that provides a focused light source without any hotspots), the shadows are relatively soft and noninvasive, but they still confer a very intense mood on the image.

fill light

Fill lights, as the name suggests, fill in and brighten up any shadows created or left untouched by the main light that may be too dark to suit the image. Although a lighting setup can only have one main light, it can benefit from as many fill lights as required. Lights that have a fill function are normally matched to diffusers to ensure that the light generated is as soft as possible and does not create any further distracting shadows or highlights anywhere in the

image. The power of a fill light should never be higher than that of the main light or their functions will switch.

For the second picture (above right), I added an extra light to the already existing setup. This light served as a fill light, placed on the subject’s left-hand side directly opposite the main light, aimed at softening the original shadows visibly created by the beauty dish in the first version of the picture.

In this new image, the shadows are much lighter and less intense, making the whole shot look brighter and airier, creating a much less dramatic mood.

hard A portrait shot of the same subject taken with hard light (left) and then soft light (right)

soft

Adding a fill light softens harsh shadows generated by the main light, making the mood of the image lighter and less intense

A main light is used for brightening the subject and creating the mood of the picture, but on its own can result in harsh shadows

The larger the softbox, the bigger the light source, and the softer the light for more flattering portraits, reducing ugly and distracting shadows