Fill light
A source of illumination that lightens shadows. See Fill in.
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More Photographic Terms ...
Fill light describes any light source that is ancillary to the main light and designed to slightly lift shadow areas of an image.
Fill Light is another wonderful addition to Camera Raw and attempts to perform a similar kind of magic for restoring shadow detail.
A fill light represents the light that falls on an outdoor subject from the broad expanse of an open sky, or reflecting from surfaces in the landscape. The fill light is almost always less bright than the main light, in fact about half as bright.
Fill Light
The Fill Light control is designed to recover detail in the shadows. In addition to the default setting, conversions were done at 33 and 66.
FILL LIGHT or "Fill-in light" - Secondary light from a lamp or reflector that illuminates shadow areas. Called "Fill flash" when the light source is a flash.
Fill lighting. In photography, lighting used to illuminate shadows.
Film speed. Measure of sensitivity of film to light. Usually expressed as an ISO figure.
Fill Light, Filler
Fill is used to lighten shadows and control Contrast and Lighting Ratios. Tip: Avoid Hard Light fill and Over-kill Fill*. Angle: usually close to the lens, on the side opposite the Key.
-Fill light - source of illumination that lightens shadows. See Fill-in.
-Film - photographic material consisting of a thin transparent plastic base coated with a light sensitive emulsion.
X3 Fill Light
Probably the most significant new feature of any RAW converter is Foveon's excellent new X3 Fill Light implemented in Photo Pro 2.0.
The Fill Light
For this shoot, I was lucky enough to find a great green marble tiled bar. I wanted this to be a part of the shot as well, so it also needs to be lit.
Fill Light
The fill light is a secondary source to the key, or main, light. The fill light fills the lighting 'gaps' of the key light, softening the direct shadows it causes and balancing the contrast, so it's visible, but subtler.
Fill light brings out some detail in the dark areas, while Recovery brings back detail in the bright areas. Be careful not to overuse these controls or your photo lose contrast and look unnatural.
93 Fill light fills in shadows appearing on the subject’s face. For the best result, fill lighting typically incorporates a reflective disc or umbrella to soften reflections.
Flash as fill light
Sunlight usually casts not-so-photogenic lights on the subject's face. This can be cured by using flash as fill light. Don't blink, you read that right.
Position your fill light at a 45-degree angle on the opposite side of the figure or model and direct the light towards the figure or model. Turn this light on, and set the power to half the power of the main light.
Lighting ratio refers to the combined intensity (at the subject) of the main and fill lights as compared to the intensity of the fill light alone; for example, both the main and fill light of equal intensity are shining on the subject.
FILL LIGHT: I set this to 3-5, which is generally enough for well-exposed images. Fill Light is used to get the extra details in the shadows.
BLACK: move the slider to 2-3 to get my black richer.
BRIGHTNESS: I never adjust this but leave it at 50.
The basic lighting types are termed main light, fill lights, kicker lights, and background lights. The main light is the primary light source for the portrait.
Flash: Flash can be used as a main or fill light. If your intent is to use it as the primary light source, you’ll need a fairly powerful one to provide enough power to override the sun.
Think of the two lights as a 'main light' and a 'fill light', then light the object (or person) with the main light first. Move it around to get different effects and see how the shadows fall.
With a main and fill light
of equal intensity, a 2:1 ratio is produced; i.e., the main light
illuminates only one side of the subject's face, while the fill light
illuminates both sides. To increase the ratio, decrease the distance ...
It is possible at times to make formal studio portraits of cats, replete with keylight, fill light, background light, and accent lights - the whole ball of wax including muslin backdrops and/or seamless paper.
The ratio between the key and fill lights.
Lighting ratio
The ratio of the brightness of light falling on the subject from the main (key) light and other (fill) lights.
We use a lot of natural light, or only one light bounced off a wall, or a fill light. Often I just take a reflector on shoots.
You can turn off the main light and measure the fill lighting with a meter, you can move lights around to vary their strength, etc. But if you're taking a candid photo outdoors you have no such control.
Be careful when applying aggressive amounts of Fill Light or Recovery during RAW conversions or Shadows and Highlights adjustments.
Use mirrors and reflective surfaces for added fill light in shadowed areas and you can start to build a unique, sought-after style of portrait photography that will get your images noticed and sold.
High Key is a lighting descriptive term that is characterized by having the fill light be at or near the key (or main light) to produce a more uniformly illuminated image. High Key images have low contrast.
Highlights ...
As you can see, these fill lights really helped to reduce the overall contrast in the sweater and even out the light somewhat.
To create your own photography studio, you'll need at least your fill light and a main light. The use of umbrellas gives it a nice and soft quality. You can also use a third light at the back to get rid of the shadows.
Photoshop gives you a 'Fill light' slider that increases the brightness of the shadows selectively:
The underexposure is corrected without overexposing the sky ...
Even I, a photographer totally committed to lighting quality, am willing to use shoe-mounted flash if it’s only employed as a fill light; something to augment natural light by opening up the shadow areas.
Try reducing exposure by one or two stops, cranking fill light all the way up and highlight recovery a bit. Then boost midtone contrast and adjust the black level a bit higher.
This lesson demonstrates some simple indoor lighting techniques and examines the use of four different LitePanel fabrics to be used as a fill light source.
(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.)
Topics Covered: ...
Healing & Clone tool
3rd Party Plug-ins and Enhanced Lens Correction
One-Click Image Correction with Perfectly ClearŪ
Noise Reduction with Noise Ninja™ Technology
Blazing Fast RAW Conversion
Highlight Recovery and Fill Light ...
Click on the Develop module. Darken the background by reducing exposure to -0.57. Darken the shadows by dragging Blacks up to 25. Restore midtone detail by pushing Fill light to 11 and push Vibrance up to +74.
to illuminate objects that are shadowed without sacrificing objects that already have enough light. A good example of this is when you take pictures of backlit people. It is most effective when the flash is not too strong and acts as a fill light.
However, this kind of lighting is the least attractive type of artificial light we use. It is flat and dimensionless. Only if you use on-camera flash as a subtle fill light to open up shadows will it look good.
 See also: Fill, Light, Camera, Photograph, Image
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