How do I light my subjects?
James Hetzler
Last Update 10 maanden geleden
How you light your subject is going to vary depending on the template or background that you plan on using. Hopefully you study the background you are going to use before photographing your subject. Game Changers templates include lighting diagrams and directions because knowing exactly where to place your lights makes photographing your subject a whole lot easier!
As you’ll notice in our templates, many of our subjects are athletes. Athletes love dramatic tough images. Most are not looking for cuddly soft images. Therefore we use dramatic lighting — and as a general rule we move our main light way off to the side until we see shadows in our subject’s cheek bones.
Most backgrounds and templates have some kind of light coming from behind – stadium light, street light, sun – therefore using a backlight on the subject is important to making them fit. Lighting from behind also helps define and separate the subject from the green screen and makes it easier to extract them (especially with long flowing hair).
To make the athlete look as imposing as possible we often photograph from a lower level – knee to waist height. This makes them appear taller and stronger than photographing from a higher angle.
Check out our How To Green Screen Page!