Eric Foo is a fabulously talented self-taught man. He’s achieved so many great things in the realm of production, and humbly says he still needs to learn much.

Today at the LiveWire Charge Up! Conference, he took a workshop on lighting and explained the concept of 3-point lighting.

Tips and notes from the workshop

• When working on a production, the camera does not see what the cameraperson sees – seeing through eyes and the lens is very different. Our eyes are a bazillion times better at seeing light than cameras do.
• There are two types of lights – hard light (lights such as red heads) and soft light (Kino Flos).
• Common type of lighting is 3-point lighting, because there are generally 3 sources of light – used during interviews.
• Main light is called the key light. This is the brightest light.
• Fill light brightens up shadows on the face – generally it is about 50% of the key light. You could use a reflector for this.
• Hair light lights the shoulders and hair . You want to light through the hair towards the camera. It is usually mounted high up – generally 50-100% of the key light.
• Set up the lights one at a time, then turn off, and go to the next until you’re happy.

Eric demonstrates the use of a red head, while Bob assists him with it (always use gloves! It’s HOT)

Kee Sitt sits  as a willing model for Eric as he demonstrates cool Kino Flo lights

Then it was our turn – go, go Team B!

And Eric ends with showing us how he executed the lighting on some of his projects. Man, he’s a creative genius at such things – way cool. That’s his Lifehouse – Everything video (watch it!) that Skyline SIB produced.