Three Point Lighting#

00:00 The Art of Lighting#

Without careful attention to lighting, your objects will often look too bright, too dark or just plain muddy.
3 Point Lighting is a way to start thinking about effective lighting setups.

00:35 Three Point Lighting Setups#

3 Point Lighting consists of 3 Lights.
Key Light
Fill Light
Rim (Back) Light

The Key Light is the Main (Primary, Brightest) light source. It's where the light seems to be coming from in the scene.
The Fill Light is the light that fills in the shadows created by the Key Light. It's usually the least bright light in the scene.
The Rim Light is cast onto the back of your subject (the back from the camera's point of view). It's often the brightest light in the scene. But it only shows up as a thin rim (sliver) of brightness around the edge of your subject.

01:44 Creating Three Point Lighting in Blender#

Add the Monkey object. (It's easier to see lighting on something more complex than a cube.)
If you don't already have one, add a Point Light with Shift A->Light->Point Light, and move it to the top left of the Monkey's head.
Change to Rendered Mode to see the lighting effects.
Adjust the Power of your Light in the Properties Editor->Light Tab->Power.
Shift D to Duplicate a second Light.
Put the Fill Light (the duplicate) on the other side of the Key Light.
Put the Fill Light lower, assuming the Key Light is higher.
Lower the Power of the Fill Light, all the way down to 0. Then bring up the Power until it feels just right.
Duplicate the Rim Light from one of your existing lights.
Put the Rim Light behind the Monkey and a bit off-center.
Crank up the Power of the Rim Light until it is the brightest light in your scene (try 50,000, try 100,000, try 1,000,000!)
Add a Cube to be the Environment (room) for the Monkey. (You'll need to scale it to be quite big!)
Notice how the Cube is too bright!
Change the Type of the Rim Light to be a Spot instead of a Point Light.
Rotate the Spot Light until it is shining on the Monkey once again.
Experiment with the Key and Fill Lights now that you have an environment.