Rim lighting a watermelon

In the most typical two light setup, one light is the key light that lights the subject from the front, usually at a 45 degree angle. The second light often is used about 180 degrees away as a "rim light", adding separation of the subject from the background. I have used a watermelon to demonstrate the rim light.

Here is a photo of the rim light only.


Here is the rim light blended with ambient.


This photo is a rim light with key light.


And this last photo is just a little key light blended with ambient. Using a softer light source would likely have yielded more pleasant pictures, but these photos are simply to illustrate the effects of the lights.


One thing to take from this demonstration is that by varying power levels and camera settings, you can decide how much of each light, including ambient light you wish to include in your photos. The lights in the room were not changed and were the same for all 4 shots.