How to Create Low-Key Lighting

Low-key lighting can instantly make a scene more dramatic and mysterious.

The visual production of a stage play, video or photograph can have just as much effect on the mood as the subject being depicted, if not more. One tool for establishing the mood is lighting. Dramatic depictions often feature low-key lighting, in which there is a high contrast between bright and dark areas in a shot. The bright areas are very bright and the dark areas are very dark. This is accomplished by the arrangement and relative brightness of the key, fill and background lights on a set.

Things You'll Need

• 3 stage lights

Instructions

1. Arrange three stage lights on your set in a triangular arrangement. Place one light in back and two lights to the front and sides, with each light aiming downward and toward the center of the triangle.

2. Place your subject in the center of the triangle.

3. Determine where the main source of light would plausibly come from on your set. Designate one of your two front lights as your key, the main source of light in your scene. Adjust the key to give off a high beam of light, and dim the other two lights to give off little or no light.

Tips & Warnings

• Carefully monitor your video or still camera to determine whether a shot is well lit. Even if it seems you have the desired effect when looking with your own eyes, it still has to look good on screen or in photographs.

• Get creative with your lighting. If a scene takes place in a dark bedroom at night, perhaps the key lighting will come from a "street lamp" shining through the window blinds.

References

• "Television: Critical Methods and Applications;" Jeremy G. Butler; 2007