First Experience Using Lighting

Who would have though using a light could be so dangerous? Well I was shown just how dangerous lights can be during today’s seminar. Deborah and Danny went though all the health and safety precautions to take when using the lights such as making sure the lights are secure and if necessary, taped to the ground, test the circuit breakers are working properly, make sure leads are out of the way or covered with a rubber mat etc.

With all that out of the way, we were then shown how to use the lights. We were split up into groups and were able to see how lighting can enhance the shot. Firstly we went into the studio and set up "three point lighting". The technique uses three lights called the key light, fill light and back light. A simple demonstration is shown below:



The key light is the main light and is normally the strongest to light up as much as the subject as possible. The fill light and the back light is used to fill in the shadows cast by the key light so that the whole subject it lit. An interactive demonstration of this can be found at

The next task was to go out side and use a reflector light disk to reflect natural light on our subject. This was quite difficult as there was not much natural light, but you could definitely see a difference.

I am now proud to say that I am qualified enough to book out and use the lighting!