Photography can take you hours to get the right frame. Experienced photographers must have experienced that it can take at least 2 hours to get an excellent picture and the key lies in the right kind of lighting. Clicking a picture takes only a second, but it is the entire process of lighting up the set up correctly and outing the right lights at the right places that make it a tedious job. Even though you can experiment with lighting as per your requirements, there is one lighting technique that is tried and tested and is used most commonly. This conventional lighting technique is called as three point lighting. It is used to give a three dimensional effect to the subject.

As the name suggests this lighting technique requires three different lights being thrown at the subject from three different angles. If we start from the scratch, the first light to be thrown should be a key light. a key light is a hard light hat gives a sense of direction to the frame and highlights subject’s features. In studio photography since there is no other source of light, a straight hard light can give a very bland look, this is why a key light is thrown from an angle of 30- 45 degree from the line of subject to camera. For outdoor photography, obviously, this is not the case and a simple camera like the Samsung S860, together with other techniques, will suffice. However, with indoor photography, the three point method is essential. The second light that is put is aback light that is used to highlight the subject from behind and separate him from the background. This light is kept at a 90 degree to the key light. The third kind of light that gives a natural look to this kind of lighting is a soft fill light which lights up the entire frame. This light is softened either by bouncing through a reflector or by diffusing it.

Three point lighting is the most commonly used and successful lighting technique. If you do no have a view how you want your subject to be lighted, this kind of lighting will give you a pleasant frame if not an exact one.