High Key Lighting and Rim Lighting

High key lighting is meant to reduce the lighting ratio within the picture. With this type of lighting, the picture may appear to be free from dark shadows, have a white background, and give off a happy feeling. This lighting also makes the pictures appear very bright from the lack of shadows. High key lighting is used a lot in television in sitcoms and comedies because of the happy feeling it gives. To produce portraits with high key lighting you would first need a white background to place your subject in front of. There should be two lights aimed at a 45 degree angle at the background placed on either side of the set up, about 2 to 3 ft away. Next you would need to place the key light source on one side of your subject at a 45 degree angle to them and about 5 ft away from them. Lastly place the fill light on the opposite side from the key light at 45 degree angle and also 5 ft away.

Rim lighting, also called three point lighting. This type of lighting uses three light sources positioned in a way around the subject so that a rim of light appears on the rim of the subject. Usually a black or dark background is used behind the subject. As I was looking up the proper set up for rim lighting, I kept getting mixed information about weather there should be one light or three lights. I read somewhere that the photographer has a choice to use only one light behind the subject to create a silhouette or rim look, while others say to have two additional lights on either side of the subject as well as the rim light behind them. One example of a rim lighting set up is to have the rim light positioned behind the subjects head, while there is a fill light and a main light positioned on either side of the subject.