Basics of Video Lighting, 2nd Edition

10 Three-point lighting

In the previous chapter we saw how balancing a fill light against the hard shadows cast by the key light helped to lift the shaded areas of the person to a level that the camera could see without contradicting the sense of shape and texture the shadows gave. Now if we add a third light we can achieve the nearest thing to three-dimensional pictures on a flat two-dimensional screen that is possible without extra technical trickery.

Imagine a performer wearing dark clothing, perhaps also with dark hair, against a dark background, looked at by a camera. The camera cannot discriminate between the different layers of dark tone. The black jumper combines with the black background curtains, and the black hair to form one unbroken ...