The Portrait: Positioning of the Key Light HD

A lighting tutorial by Ian Murray from England. Learn more about key light positioning and its effects. (Part 2of5) It is important to understand the structure of the human face in order to effectively light it. The face can be defined by 5 distinct points: nose, chin, the 2 cheeks and forehead. The face can also be divided into 4 distinct facets, made up of ear to jaw and cheek to nose, on both sides of the face. By arcing a light around the face we can see how the different facets react to the light from different angles. This is also affected by whether the light is soft or hard, or a combination of these. This gets more complicated in a multi light setup. “In reality you tend to work with varying degrees of hard and soft, often in combination. In most situations a face is lit with a variety of lighting textures. Understanding and replicating these produces the most complex and richest images." Ian Murray, Cinematographer