As you can see, our subject is mainly lit by a strong slightly harsh key light. There are wrinkles visible on his forehead, and under his eyes. His eyes also look recessed & shrouded in shadow. We would like the shot to show less wrinkles & imperfections, and a little less harshness.

The wider view shows the setup. The key light is a focusable Omni-light, with a 300w lamp. Two 200w focusable Pro-lights, each with full scrim and frost diffusion gels installed are used, from the front for the fill light, and behind for the hair light. A third Pro-light is mounted directly above the fern plant using a Lowel Space Clamp. It is pointed down to add highlights to the plant, with barndoors closed in to cut the spill.

Our re-lit shot is more flattering & complimentary. The key light on him is softer without being completely flat. There is still shadow on the left side but it is less dramatic than the harsher contrast ratio of the original shot. Everything else in the shot is lit the same as before, yet the entire feel is more comfortable.

We haven't completely removed his wrinkles, and we can still see character in his face, by what remains. However, those harsh elements are no longer the first things you will notice in a high resoultion HD image.

The wider view shows that the only thing that changed between the 2 images was the replacement of the 300w Omni-light with a Rifa eX 88 and 500w lamp.

We added a 40 degree fabric Egg Crate to the Rifa, to minimize spill and trim the output a bit. Moving the subject away from the wall & toward the center of the room helped keep spill from creating shadows on the back wall.

Our first pass shows a well lit image with enough contrast between key & fill to show depth & modeling. The edge light from behind does a good job of separating our subject from the background. A fine shot for many productions, but what options are there for tweaking the shading on the subject, and how can those small changes alter the feel of the shot?

Viewing the setup from behind, we can see the 2 Rifa eX's have 40 degree Egg Crates installed. The Rifa eX 55 visible on the right-side from this vantage point is the key, and the Rifa eX 44 placed higher on the left is the fill light.

Notice that this shot has now gained a little more shadow on the right side, There is also a little more pronounced contrast from the edge light as a result. The image is slightly more dramatic, perhaps implying that the shot is occuring a bit later at night.

Notice that the Rifa eX 55 being used as the key light is still in the same position, but the Rifa eX 44 fill light has been panned slightly away from the subject, towards the front. You can see from its Egg Crate, how much less light is being directed towards our subject as a result.

Our third shot shows an even more dramatic change. There is increased shadow on the fill side, while the key side of the face remains the same. The other elements in the room are still lit the same, but this change in the fill light alone has altered the feel of the entire shot.

The Rifa eX 44 fill light is panned even further away from the subject. Both the light position and the use of an Egg Crate are keeping spill from the panned fill light from hitting the camera lens, causing lens flare. Always check to confirm that stray light isnt hitting the lens.