Backlighting (lighting design)

Backlighting (lighting Design)

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Backlighting (lighting design)

In the context of lighting design, backlighting refers to the process of illuminating the subject from the back. In other words, the lighting instrument

Stage lighting instrument

Stage lighting instruments are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatre productions, rock concerts and other performances taking place in live performance Theater s....
and the viewer

Viewer

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In the context of lighting design, backlighting refers to the process of illuminating the subject from the back. In other words, the lighting instrument

Stage lighting instrument

Stage lighting instruments are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatre productions, rock concerts and other performances taking place in live performance Theater s....
and the viewer

Viewer

Things known as a Viewer include:* For television viewers, see ratings or Nielsen ratings* File viewer, a piece of computer software that displays the data stored in a computer file in a human-friendly form....
are facing towards each other, with the subject in between. This causes the edges of the subject to glow, while the other areas remain darker. The back light is usually placed directly behind the subject in a 4-point lighting setup.

A back light, which lights foreground elements from the rear, is not to be confused with a background light

Background light

The background light is used to illuminate the background area of a set. The background light will also provide separation between the subject and the background....
, which lights background elements (such as scenery).

The back light is sometimes called hair or shoulder light, because when lighting an actor

Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
or an actress, backlighting will cause the edges of his or her hair to glow if he or she has fuzzy hair. This gives an angelic halo

Halo (religious iconography)

A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They are often used in religious works to depict holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes....
type effect around the head. This is often used in order to show that the actor or actress so lit is "good" or "pure

Purity

Purity is the absence of impurity in a substance.Purity may also refer to:* in Buddhism, Purity in Buddhism refers to a spiritual purity of character or essence....
". In television

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
this effect is often used in soap operas and has become something of a cliché

Cliché

A clich? or cliche is a saying, expression or idea which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning, especially when at some earlier time it was considered distinctively meaningful or novel, rendering it a stereotype....
of the genre

Genre

A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other Art#Art forms or utterance....
. It is also sometimes called the kicker or rim light.

Backlighting helps to provide separation between the subject and its background. In the theatre

Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
it is often used to give a more three-dimensional appearance to actors or set elements, when front lighting alone would give a two-dimensional look. In chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. The term is usually applied to bold contrasts affecting a whole composition, but is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-di...
effects in painting, such as the candlelit paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an England landscape and portrait Painting. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution."...
(illustration, left), backlighting helps separate subjects in the foreground and emphasizes depth.

In photography, a back light (usually the sun) that is about sixteen times more intense than the key light

Key light

The key light is the first and usually most important light that a photographer, cinematographer, or other scene composer will use in a lighting setup....
will produce a silhouette

Silhouette

A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black....
.

The vertical angle of the back light can change the effect. A low angle could cause the light to hit the camera lens, causing a lens flare

Lens flare

Lens flare is the light scattered in lens systems through generally unwanted image formation mechanisms, such as internal reflection and scattering from material inhomogeneities in the lens....
. A high angle could cause the nose of the subject to extend out from the mostly-vertical shadow of the head, producing a potentially unwanted highlight in the middle of the face.

Backlighting (lighting design)

See also