What are forward light, backlight and side light?

Front light, also known as front light, is lighting in which the light projection direction is consistent with the camera shooting direction. When the light is forward, the subject is evenly illuminated, the shadow of the scene is blocked by itself, and the tone is softer, which can hide the unevenness and wrinkles on the subject's surface. However, if not handled properly, it will appear dull. Smooth lighting is not conducive to expressing the atmospheric perspective effect in the picture, and the spatial three-dimensional effect is also poor. The tonal contrast and contrast are also not as rich as the side light and side backlight. The advantage of smooth light is that it not only has a soft tone, but also can well reflect the inherent color effect of the scene. When processing light, darker smooth light is often used as secondary light or modeling light.

Side light: The light projection direction is approximately 90 degrees to the shooting direction. Objects illuminated by side light have obvious dark sides and projections, and have strong expressive power on the three-dimensional shape and texture of the scene. The disadvantage is that it often creates overly compromised tones and levels of half light and half dark, often resulting in imbalance in large scenes. This requires considering the proportional relationship between the light-receiving surface and the shadow in the composition.

Backlight: also known as backlight. Light illumination from behind the subject, because it illuminates from the back, can only illuminate the outline of the subject, so it is also called contour light. There are three types of backlighting: front backlighting, side backlighting, and top backlighting. Under backlighting conditions, most of the scene is in shadow, and only the outline of the illuminated scene distinguishes this scene from another scene. Therefore, it has clear layers and can well express the atmospheric perspective effect. When shooting panoramic views, This kind of light is often used in distant views and scenes to give the picture rich layers.