Lighting 101 Part 3: The Back Light
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The Back light can be placed in two positions for this effect. The first (and best) placement of the Back light is directly behind the subject with the vertical placement of the light between 30 and 45 degrees. Any steeper and you run the risk of creating very noticeable shadows on the subject and casting light on the front of the subject.

As you can see in this image, the Back light alone makes the hair light up.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] The problem with placing the Back light directly behind the subject is that you could end up with a light stand growing out of the top of the subject’s head. This is not good at all. To place the Back light directly behind the subject, you can either use a C-stand with a boom arm or use a scissor mount to mount the Back light on the frame of a drop down ceiling. You can also you a variety of putty knife type mounts that require you to press into the seam between the ceiling and the wall, but I find that to cause too much damage.

If you can not place the Back light directly behind the subject, try angling it off to the side slightly to get the same result.

Make sure the stand of the back light is not growing out of the top of the subject's head.


In the last installment I discussed the Key to Fill light ratio. The Back light can also be at a variety of different intensities, but typically the Key to Back light ratio is close to 2:1. Start off with that ratio and then make adjustments based on the situation.

As I mentioned a moment ago, be aware that the Back light can be so intense that it casts shadows on the subject. Also, the angle and placement of the Back light can cause lens flares to occur in the camera. If this happens, you will need to flag (or block) the light. We’ll discuss flagging in more detail in another installment.

While adding the Back light helps the subject stand out, you can tweak the Back light by adding a gel to the Back light to help bring out more color in the subject’s hair. In the following image, a light orange gel was added to make her hair pop a bit more.

A light orange gel makes the hair stand out even more.


The Key, Fill, and Back lights give you ways to light your subject for interviews, and these three lights are typically called Three-point lighting. In order to finish this basic Three-point lighting setup, we actually need to add a fourth light. I’ll cover that light in next installment.

When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher



Source: Digital Media Online, Inc.
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