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How to Use a Fill Light

Lighting, Lighting, Photography, Production Feb 10 , Episode 236

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Using Main and Fill Light

In this episode we cover what’s called “clamshell lighting,” with a beauty dish as our main light and softbox as fill. We go over the power levels of each and how they can best be used together.

All the Info

0:20 News and Updates
1:35- Using a main/key light and issues
2:35- Why a fill light will help, why it shouldn’t be as strong as fill
2:45- Our light setup with softbox
3:20- How the light will affect the shadows
3:55- Measuring ratio using the light meter
4:35- Metering for the main light
5:45- Turning up the fill light to full power and showing example
07:15- Lowering the light to half power
08:18- Explanation of a stop
09:20- Using ratio with the light, not in camera
10:10 Using the 3:1 ratio
11:48- Putting this ratio into practice

Why Fill Should be Based off the Main Light

Your key or main light is the primary source of light in the image. The fill is simply used to add detail back into your shadows, and if you add to much or too little it can throw off the look of the photo. Using a 3:1 ratio will help you bracket so that you have an image showing detail in every area.

Gear Used in This Episode

Canon 5d Mkii

Pocketwizard Plus II

Sekonic L-758DR

Sony NEX 5N

Avenger Stands

Seamless Background

« How to Use a Beauty Dish

DIY Light Modifiers »

http://phlearn.com Aaron Nace

f/16 is totally a stop. Brain not work good.
http://www.apkphotography.com/ Allison

Great tips – and a huge thank you for suggesting Erwin Olaf’s work – truly inspiring!
http://www.facebook.com/caroline.glabik Caroline Southpaw Glabik

Hey guys! Could you do a episode on background lighting? For an example, how to get different background color if you only have one type of backdrop. Without the helfp from Photoshop.

Thanx again for this week, needed to be reminded!
http://www.amynelsonblain.com/ Amy Nelson-Blain

Great episode! You could use lapel microphones, reduces background noise and you can move around and have the same level of audio.
Sebastian Ortiz

Awesome episode….
Sebastian Ortiz

If you have a white background, you could change it in shades of black to white, just by the placement of your light, the further away from your subject, the lighter the background the closer to your subject the darker the background, this works in conjunction with the distance your subject is from the background, as well… now if you’re looking at Color itself, a flash with a colored gel will work for giving you color in the background…. hope that helps,at least till Aaron nad the gang, does an episode on it… Hee!

Cheers,

Sebastian
Chuck Griffin

For better audio, maybe try wireless lapel or lavalier mics. If you don’t want to spend tons of money on a wireless system try using wired mics with a zoom h2n or zoom h4n recorder. Might add an extra step for processing videos as you have to sync up the audio. But the quality you gain would definitely be worth the extra time.
George

I am little confused
You have measured key light at F16. Then you turned off key light and turn on fill light and mesure fill at f9.
Ok now you turned on both light but you did not mesure your exposure and shoot at F16. Shouldn’t the sum of both light together give yo more then F16.
Better yet shouldn’t you use your light meter to find out final exposure with key & fill?
http://twitter.com/illmophoto Nathan Dunn

So is the Erwin Olaf pheature inspired by the dave hill/erwin olaf preset thing? *headshake*
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Goslee/100000113338994 Matt Goslee

how about an episode on use of gels and how to use them to get a certain mood to your photography.
Aaronrichardjay

I luff ur show, u r the best
Anonymous

Aaron, you don’t have to thank us for buying the PRO tutorials. They totally worth the money!!!
http://www.facebook.com/mmanastireanu Marius Manastireanu

You want to expose the shot for the key light (the brightest light in the photo). So if the key light is measured at f16 you shot at f16
http://www.aaronbennettphotography.com Aaron Bennett

Now That Was Prob The Best Episode Yet!!! Brilliant Aaron
Barrett S.

Wireless lavalier microphone is a black ball looking mic but would be perfect for this. I would look into one of those as opposed to a face mic..
http://www.danrconway.com/ Dan R Conway

If you don’t want to go buy a lav mic, an iPhone will do in a pinch. Lee over on Fstoppers, another great photography resource, did an awesome video about this: http://fstoppers.com/use-an-iphone-to-record-high-quality-audio-for-your-videos
Anonymous

yessss phlearn tshirts
Anonymous

love these episodes ive been getting really into studio work recently and I cant wait to experiment much more
Elias

Yes, like Marius said the fill light doesn’t affect the brightness of the main/key light but brightens up the areas that the main light doesn’t hit (shadows).
jared

for sound you should get a clip on mic.. ( like what is used in a talk show)
Rebecca

In school, we learned that for portrait to have a 3:1 (twice as much for main than fill) was only a one stop difference, a 5:1 was 2 stops and 9:1 is stops.
Commercial photography is different in that one stop difference between main and fill is 4:1, 2 stops is 4:1 and 3 stops is 8:1 (I think). For some reason portrait adds a 1 to the ratio and they say it’s the fill or something.

P.S. Not trying to be a smarty pants…I literally just graduated on Friday, but I was a bit confused when you said a 3:1 ratio was 1 1/2 stops difference. Anyways, I’m trying to watch all your videos, I absolutely LOVE this website!! I’ve learned a ton!!
George

Now I got it. Thanks for the info Marius & Elias
Jose Soriano

You are right rebecca, It is like you say