Photo from The Complete Eejit's Guide to Filmmaking.

Even if you're shooting on a tiny budget, you should still consider the advantages of using a professional lighting kit. It could be the determining factor in making a good scene look great. 

The basic lighting setup for shooting film or video consists of just three lights: a key, a fill and a back.  

The key light serves as the primary light source in your scene and is used to simulate natural light. It is usually set up parallel to the camera, elevated a few feet and facing your subject at a 30- to 45-degree angle.  

Unfortunately, the key creates shadows across your subject's face. You can soften this effect by using a fill light — a less powerful light placed opposite the key at camera height — pointed at a 30- to 45-degree angle. To make sure the resulting image isn't washed-out and flat, the key is often bounced off a reflector. A handy tool to have on set, a reflector is basically just a piece of silver-white or gold-white (great for warming skin tones) fabric stretched over a frame. Purchasing one will cost around $70, but making one is cheap and easy — just grab a large piece of cardboard and some aluminum foil. 

Finally, the back light is set above and behind your subject in order to outline and separate them from the background. To get the correct effect, make sure the back light isn't streaming directly into the camera lens. 

From this basic setup, feel free to experiment and explore by adding or subtracting, softening or hardening your lights in order to create different effects and set different moods. 

For a more in-depth look on three-point lighting, click here. 

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