Kicker Light Help

Hi There

I am still doing the trail & error thing with studio lights. I have used a kicker light behind my son on camera right and was hoping someone could let me know if I used it correctly or should it be higher?
Thanks again for your help.

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If you mean a 'rim' light...Too intense; should not fall on the skin but should delineate the hair from a background whose tonality is too similar in brightness to the hair, causing it to blend together. On your son, should just be a touch of rim or light (rim light!)and not light the side of the head as much as it does. If you increase distance of the light source to the head, it highlights individual strands of hair more. Use the light to shine thru the hair for female subjects.

If you truly mean a 'kicker', it highlights a specific area...think 'accent light'. So what area did you want to highlight, and for what reason? Same comment about skin...did you want to accent the edge of his ear, and his neck?

Based on the image posted it almost looks as if you want a hair light. Is that the case?

I see what you mean about his ear and neck, oops. I guess I just wanted to separate him from the background so that would be a hair light?

Hi Teresa,

If separation between subject andbackground is what you are going for then that can be accomplished by having the subject at least 6 feet from the background and you might want to try a background light. In your image it appears as if you were trying to have a hair light (and perhaps you were without knowing it) but that will not give you the separation you desire. I would distance the subject from the background and use the main and fill to light your subject. Also, I would raise your main light up a bit so the top of the highlight side of his head has some light on it. You are concentrating the light on his face. I think you'll have a bit more separation that way as well. Try that and see what happens.

Teresa,

Overall I think you did a good job, good composition, light ratio, etc.

However, in order to seperate the subject from the scene I would follow Robert's advise to get the subject as far away from the background as possible. And even more importantly, light the background according to the portrait style.

Remember,
"kicker" is to give more kick(highlight) to one area such as a shoulder, cheek bone, etc.
"Hairlight" is just that, to give some separation of the hair from the background. Think of a brunette in a low-key shot with a black background, her hair would just disappear without a light to define the edge.


Give it another go and post the results!