Getting your key light just right can get complicated when considering the blocking of the actors, the space and what units you have at your disposal. It is also easy to feel a bit of pressure when keying actors for tight eyelines and close-ups because we tend to sweeten up the lighting a bit when we walk in camera.
Tight eyelines and close-ups are also ingredients for a dramatic, emotional and/or important moment, so naturally we want to take a little more time to be sure we get it right.
When going for more traditional beauty light on the face, we come frontal with our key light and decide how wrapped around the face we want it. I have discussed ways to key light before, but want to explore lighting from different directions.
Half of a recent Under Armour commercial I shot took place in large offices at night. It also was shot for black and white, so my lighting and contrast had to be approached differently. The spot introduced characters as leaders of a corrupt corporation.
Because of its dramatic introduction, before we go into a gym with the main character, lighting soft and frontal was never an intention. Knowing whose story this was, I utilized the key lights for each scene in different positions-from above and from the side.
KEYING FROM ABOVE
When you key from above, where you may also have your ambient light coming from, you lose light in the eyes. You can back up actors to potentially gain back an eye light, but what you have done is created shadows downward on the face.
Fig. 1: Top light on coverage for the Under Armour office scene
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Getting your key light just right can get complicated when considering the blocking of the actors, the space and what units you have at your disposal. It is also easy to feel a bit of pressure when keying actors for tight eyelines and close-ups because we tend to sweeten up the lighting a bit when we walk in camera.
