Once you’ve become very familiar with your key light, and are able to achieve good one-light portraits, it’s only natural that you’d want to progress on to more sophisticated lighting techniques. Additional light sources can help you fine-tune the modeling of your subject’s face and figure as well as add dimension to the overall portrait.
After the key light is set, a fill light is often added. The key light tends to create a simple pattern consisting of strong light on one side of the subject’s face, and strong shadow on the other. The controlled application of a fill light will allow you to reduce contrast as it extends and softens the transition from light to shadow.
In this lesson, we’ll see how to apply a fill light using an actual additional light source and alternatively a reflector of some sort.