Four Lighting Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Key Direction
Where do you want your keylight to come from?
12 o’clock? (directly behind the subject…pure backlight...probably not the best direction to key from)
3 o’clock? (from 90 degrees camera right of the subject)
6 o’clock? (directly behind camera…totally flat)
9 o’clock? (from 90 degrees camera left of the subject)
or somewhere in between?

2. Contrast Ratio
How far apart in intensity are the key and the fill?
How many stops hotter is the key than the fill?
1 stop? 2 stops? 3 stops?
How contrasty is the subject? The background?

3. Hard or Soft?
Is the quality of the light sharp or gentle?
Are the shadows crisp or do they gradate?
Is the light direct or through diffusion or bounced?
Is a wrinkle finely defined or hardly defined at all?

4. Is the light more or less Sourceless or more or less Sourcey?

Does it wrap around the face? How much?
Does it seem to come from one point-source?

UBER-QUESTION (with each of the above, ask yourself this):

How do these choices make the subject’s face look?
Eye-socket shadows?
Nose Shadow? Where?
Wrinkles emphasized?
Under-chin shadow?
Can you see their eyes?

30/05/2005 10:22 a.m.