So today I wanted to share with you some helpful tips on how to get a nicely composed shot with some basic 3-point lighting. Let's dive right in. So first I want to break down what's happening in this photo. As you can see, I have large white open living room and a big source of natural light coming in through my balcony windows. Now in some cases natural light can work against you when using LED or hot lights, color temperature being one factor. But you'll see in a sec why it helps my situation. So take note of my couch placement and it's away from the wall which creates a sense of depth for your shot and will help to avoid shadows you may get from your key light. Alright so back to it. What is 3-point lighting? It's exactly what it sounds like. It's lighting a subject from 3 points. You have your key light which is your main source illuminating your subject, your fill light to adjust contrast across your subject, and your back light or your hair light to separate your subject from the background and give them a little more pop. In this case I'm treating the key in the fill the same, so I have one big soft source which will help the light wrap around me a little bit more softly. Ideally I'd like my back light armed out and above my head, but because my ceiling solo I was catching the soft box in the frame. Now if I had a smaller light it would have worked perfectly. So instead I had to place it directly behind the couch for a little kicker off my head. And finally as I mentioned before, I left my windows open so I can illuminate that back wall. I'm not getting any weird color shifts that would complicate my white balance because the color temperature is already so similar. About 5,000 Kelvin for my lights and 5,600 Kelvin for the natural light that's coming into the room. And this is what we get. I have soft even lighting on the subject and the background wall is getting a nice gradient from the window but not overpowering the brightness of the subject in the foreground. So things to keep in mind. Pay attention to your set dressing. If done right you end up with a nice composition. Keep it simple, keep it clean, and keep it organized. If you're trying to do too much it becomes distracting and will take the attention away from the subject. In this case I was trying to balance out the shot with the items in the background as well. Watch for your color relationships throughout your frame. They should complement each other. Too many colors or clashing colors can be very distracting. More drob included. I wanted to find a color that worked with everything around me but at the same time worked with my skin tone. Too light of a color and it would have been a wash. Too dark of a color. And I would have started to blend in with the couch and looked like a floating head. So no good there. And in this next example we have a close up so you can better see what the light is doing. If I wanted more shape and contrast to my face I would play a little bit more with my key in the fill. So I could power my key to be a little brighter than the fill. Or if your lights don't dim you can physically move your fill light a little further away making it less powerful. I could also move around the position of the lights to not be quite so frontal. Or I could even eliminate the fill light altogether for a more dramatic look. Which is what I'm actually doing in this shot here. So I've eliminated the fill light and I'm only using my key light and my back light. And you'll notice that I have a little bit more contrast on this side of my face. And really that's just up to your taste. So three point lighting is just a starting point. My advice to you is to experiment. Record some lighting tests. Keep track of that placement of the light. And you'll learn a lot along the way. So if you want to learn more about how to look great from home check out these videos and don't forget to subscribe.