Generations of professionals have used fill on the other side of the subject from the key light, and they still do so. That explains, as well as I know how to, why you need to think in terms of cause and effect of the lights rather than what spot of the floor you put them. The contrast it creates with the normally filled shadows and the bright highlights will make it a distraction. If the key light is also created a shadow from the nose in this same place no light reaches it and it will be reproduced in the photo as a black void, devoid of detail. The biggest pitfall of side fill placement is that the shadow side cheekbone can completely shade the smile line. Again that's not necessarly a bad thing to do, especially on white backgrounds, but there are pitfalls of side fill to watch for.īecause a face is three dimensional it is possible for one part of the face that sticks out, like a cheekbone, to shade a lower part, like the crease between the cheek and mouth created when people smile. The key light is on one side so it seems logical to many to put the fill on the opposite side, because that after all is where the darkest shadows are! However when fill is placed on the side opposite the key light, the shadows on the side of the face will become brighter than the shadows on the front of the face (i.e., cheekbones, side of nose) because they are further from the fill source light or reflector. However you should be able to recognize when the placement of the fill is creating technical deficiencies such as unfilled, detailess voids on the face which may be in context for a hard edged portrait of a rock star but will be a distraction on a traditional portrait of mom or dad. There are no rules and you can put it anywhere you like for creative purposes. So on white flat frontal "key" lighting with strong side "fill" from one or both sides is very effective. On white the role of key and fill are reversed with the front of the face kept partially or fully in the "shadows" relative to the brighter lit sides of the face for contrast with the background. Positioning fill so it illuminates the entire face evenly and falls off front-to-back relative to the face or camera will generailly produce the smoothest most natural looking highlight / shadow transitions. The exact position isn't critical, the fact you can't tell its there is, at least for a natural look. On dark backgrounds keeping it near the camera axis or directly in front of the subject's face if turned obliquely will produce the closest simulation of natural sun + open sky lighting. Dark / White backgrounds reverse the tonal dynamics and require entirely different lighting strategies to make the face of the subject contrast. Instead of thinking in terms of "where do I put the light" you should first wrap your head around what the roles of the key, fill are and how they differ on light and dark backgrounds.įill is needed to overcome the dynamic range limitations of cameras in some situations, but there's no one size fits all solution for its placement. Shoot and observe, adjust the settings and shoot again. With some notes on meter readings combined with EXIF data, ALL the information we need to learn is right there, instantly in front of us. People don't seem to appreciate that digital gives us a superb learning platform. Place the fill source on the other side of the subject from the key light, meter it and the key source carefully (if you're trying to do this without a flash meter, think again), work out how you want the lighting to look (no need for endless theoretical rubbish about ratios - just separate the lighting power by a half-stop or one stop or one-and-a-half stops or two stops), then shoot and observe the results.
#Keylight 1.2 subject gone professional
This is why almost every professional in the game places the fill source (whether that is a strobe or a reflector or a window light) on the other side of the subject from the key light.Ī fill source in line with the camera will be occasionally useful, but it is almost never the starting point for professional portrait photographers/glamour photographers, so why should it be for enthusiastic amateur photographers? Despite the attempts by one wannabe guru to convince the forum that the only rightful place for a fill light is on the camera axis, this is NOT where the vast majority of professionals place their fill light source, and with good reason.įill sources are best-employed when they, like the key sources, are directional.
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