Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for film or television. It attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect. In traditional lighting design for black and white photography, also called three-point lighting, there are a key light, a fill light, and a back light. Classical Spectacular used ordinary stage lighting plus special laser effects In the 2005 Classical Spectacular performance, a state of the art lighting system designed by Durham Marenghi was used to accompany the music Starry lighting such as is shown on the RHS of this photo are much more interesting than... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... Sacred Love versus Profane Love by Giovanni Baglione. ... The role of the theatre lighting designer (or LD) within theatre is to work with the theatre director, set designer, and costume designer to create an overall look for the show in response to the text, but bearing in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost. ... Three-point lighting is a very common lighting technique used in both still photography and in film. ... The key light is the first and usually most important light that a photographer or cinematographer will use in a lighting setup. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

The key light shows the contours of an object by throwing areas into light or shadow while the fill light provides partial illumination in the shadow areas to prevent a distracting contrast between bright and dark. For dramatic effects, one may wish the contrast to be high — to emphasize the brightness of the sun in a desert scene, to make a face look rugged, seamed, and old, or to isolate details in a mass of surrounding shadow. A variety of methods can be used to create these effects.

The key to fill ratio, as measured using an instrument to measure light intensity, e.g., a light meter, is the ratio of the intensity of the key light to the fill light. Low key lighting actually has a much higher ratio, e.g. 8:1, than does high key lighing, which can approach 1:1.

It is perfectly possible to use fill light in these large areas of shadow, reducing the contrast. Generally the term 'low key' refers to cases in which no such care is taken.

Low key is also used in cinematography to refer to any scene with a high contrast ratio, especially if there is more dark area than light. Compare with high-key lighting. Cinematography is the discipline of making lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. ... High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film or television that aims to reduce the contrast ratio present in the scene. ...

Ambient lighting is a term used to describe the use of light to illuminate an object or background in a deliberate manner to evoke a certain mood or emotion. This highly skilled lighting technique is very subtle but nevertheless can achieve highly effective outcomes. An example of this is an evil character deliberately illuminated from beneath the chin giving them a certain eerie and demonic appearance.

See also

• Film noir