Filming & Production
Fill light
Also called: fill
Your key light does the shaping. Fill decides how deep the shadow it throws is allowed to go. Bring fill closer or turn it up and the face flattens towards a bright commercial look. Pull it back and contrast climbs towards something moodier. The relationship between the two gets described in stops: one below key is gentle, three below is dramatic. Fill does not have to be a light at all. A white board, a pale wall or a reflector bouncing the key back does the job for nothing, and bounced fill is softer than a second lamp.