When approaching how to light a scene in your video, you will look at the three components of scene lighting: key light, fill light and back (or rim) light (also called a kicker). In this article, we will focus on how to practically use fill light in your shots.
In lighting for video, the main purpose of fill light is to lighten areas that would otherwise go black or fall into darkness. By using fill light, we bring out details in these dark areas.
There are two basic types of fill light, hard and soft. These two types are also referred to as "qualities" of light. A hard light would be the type of light where you would focus a beam on the character's face by pointing the light directly at the subject. If this light is dimmer than another light that is hitting the character's face, it will still be considered the fill light for the shot.
The more popular way these days to create fill light is to give is a "soft" quality by diffusing the light before it hits the actor's face. This can be achieved in numerous ways, but I will discuss two of the easiest ways to do it here.
The first method is to create bounce light for your fill source by pointing a light at a large bounce board just out of camera view, and angling this bounce board so that the fill light strikes your character's face in pleasing way. These bounce boards can be found in camera supply shops and are commonly 4 foot by 4 foot squares of Styrofoam or cardboard. In a pinch, you could use any white surface that you can move around the film set. Even a bed sheet will suffice. If you are using a bounce board and want to make it easy to move around, try cutting a small hole in the center of it and mounting it on a lighting stand by unscrewing a screw from the lighting stand, putting the hole over the screw area, and then screwing the screw back into the lighting stand, which will hold the board against the stand.
The second method of creating bounce light on a small set is to use a common household light bulb, hanging inside a "China ball", one of those cheap paper lanterns that you can find in lighting shops and import shops. The lanterns are spherical and create a gentle, soft light that can bring out the shadows in a subjects face.
By carefully using fill light, you can heighten the mood of your scenes and also add photographic information to your shots, so that you have more latitude when you are cutting and color correcting your finished video or film.
In lighting for video, the main purpose of fill light is to lighten areas that would otherwise go black or fall into darkness. By using fill light, we bring out details in these dark areas.
There are two basic types of fill light, hard and soft. These two types are also referred to as "qualities" of light. A hard light would be the type of light where you would focus a beam on the character's face by pointing the light directly at the subject. If this light is dimmer than another light that is hitting the character's face, it will still be considered the fill light for the shot.
The more popular way these days to create fill light is to give is a "soft" quality by diffusing the light before it hits the actor's face. This can be achieved in numerous ways, but I will discuss two of the easiest ways to do it here.
The first method is to create bounce light for your fill source by pointing a light at a large bounce board just out of camera view, and angling this bounce board so that the fill light strikes your character's face in pleasing way. These bounce boards can be found in camera supply shops and are commonly 4 foot by 4 foot squares of Styrofoam or cardboard. In a pinch, you could use any white surface that you can move around the film set. Even a bed sheet will suffice. If you are using a bounce board and want to make it easy to move around, try cutting a small hole in the center of it and mounting it on a lighting stand by unscrewing a screw from the lighting stand, putting the hole over the screw area, and then screwing the screw back into the lighting stand, which will hold the board against the stand.
The second method of creating bounce light on a small set is to use a common household light bulb, hanging inside a "China ball", one of those cheap paper lanterns that you can find in lighting shops and import shops. The lanterns are spherical and create a gentle, soft light that can bring out the shadows in a subjects face.
By carefully using fill light, you can heighten the mood of your scenes and also add photographic information to your shots, so that you have more latitude when you are cutting and color correcting your finished video or film.
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