Creating a Basic Lighting Setup

Now you will look at how to set up the lighting in a simple scene. To start off with a firm grasp of lighting concepts, you will first explore lighting using traditional lights alone and then move on to more complex lighting schemes. The ability to light a scene properly by using traditional lights is key to understanding the lighting process and the tools at hand. In this section, you will create a simple three-point lighting scheme. After the lighting rig is created, you will move on to see how this setup can be adapted to provide a wide variety of lighting options.

Using Three-Point Lighting

Three-point lighting is a common technique in photo, film, and 3D. As the name suggests, the light that is set up (or rigged) consists of three elements: the key light, the fill light, and the rim light. The key light provides the majority of the illumination for the scene and is typically positioned in front of the subject (seen in Figure 4.14). The fill light is used to balance out the shadows left by the key light. Finally, the rim light is added to accentuate the silhouette of the subject. In Figure 4.15, the fill light is shown alone. In Figure 4.16, the rim light is demonstrated.