Three-Point Lighting

Three-point lighting is a traditional approach to lighting a television shot. After all these years, the concepts still carry over to CG lighting. In this setup, three distinct roles are used to light the subject of a shot. The scene should, in effect, seem to have only one primary or key light to define lighting direction and create primary shadows, a softer light to fill the scene and soften the shadows a bit, and a back light to make the subject pop out from the background.

This does not mean there are only three lights in the scene. Three-point lighting suggests that there are three primary angles of light for your shot, dependent on where the camera is located.

Three-point lighting ensures that your scene’s main subject ...

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