Eye Light, do you use?

S

Sneakle

Well-known member
Just wondering if any of you go out of your way to set an eyelight for closeups.
Sometimes I get a nice spark in the eye with a regular light setup but I'm thinking of buying a small light specifically for that purpose. I'm looking at units that mount on the camera. I've seen some that circle around the lens but they're expensive.
 
For a catch light (or eyelight), I use one of the following:

1) A medium-sized china ball with a low wattage bulb.

2) For something on the camera, I found this bare bulb socket on a gooseneck with a c-clamp at the end. With an old metal hangar, I created a frame for it. I mount this on my sticks, throw some 216 on the frame and light it up (with a dimmer). Works like a charm.

Good luck.

~~Dave
 
Sneakle said:
Just wondering if any of you go out of your way to set an eyelight for closeups.
Click to expand...
I've not used them myself (yet) but some DP's I've worked with wished they had the little 100's or 150's so they could light up the eyes in certain situations.

Sneakle said:
I've seen some that circle around the lens but they're expensive.
Click to expand...
Ring light

As Dan was saying.. The Arri 150 (or equivalent) is good for that. You can also use a snoot to make the beam smaller (or use blackwrap to create your own snoot).
From a previous Dan Post said:
With women of a certain age, I might work another Arri 150 fresnel right next to the camera lens with some diffusion and a couple of scrims as an eye light/extra fill.
Click to expand...

Davdo said:
For a catch light (or eyelight), I use one of the following:

1) A medium-sized china ball with a low wattage bulb.
Click to expand...
Would that not be more like a soft fill light? Cause its more like just out there, not focusing on and highlighting the eyes?
 
My experience with eye lights is that they need to be either very close, or very big (or both). Otherwise, the specular highlight is too small in the talent's eyes to really make a difference.
That being said Chryogenic, a medium sized china ball works well for a spherical catch light (and if it is placed on center near the subject, it will not affect key to fill ratio). A ring light works well when the talent is close to the lens/ring. A 150 works well, but I don't think a snoot would help the catch light look more appealing (in fact, it would just make it smaller). If however, you are going for a face light (think Stepford Wives), a snoot would work well.


Jason
 
I almost always use a medium sized china ball with a 300watt bulb inside. It is rare that I don't put up an eye light. They make a world of difference.

In the past I have also used a 1k behind a large sheet of 216 if I wasn't able to put a light close to the actor.
 
I guess it dpeends on the situation, but you don't always want to have an eyelight. Especially if it ruins the contrast you are controlling on your subject. Eyelights portray a sense of emotion, which can also work well by removing it to create another feeling.
 
Chryogenic- the medium sized ball with a low wattage bulb (talking as little as a 40 or 60w) is backed off usually. Like Awakened said, the catch needs to be big to really make a difference. And placed (and lamped) right, it doesn't affect the ratio at all.

~~Dave
 
PaPa said:
I guess it dpeends on the situation, but you don't always want to have an eyelight. Especially if it ruins the contrast you are controlling on your subject. Eyelights portray a sense of emotion, which can also work well by removing it to create another feeling.
Click to expand...

Always important to remember this. It's a tool and has it's place. But nothing should go into a shot without it somehow being motivated by the story/emotion of the scene/moment. Pretty isn't always what you need to make a scene work.
 
I use an LED flashlight on the camera shoe with a half ping-pong ball over the lens. Nice big catch in the eye, and doesn't add any light to the scene.
 
We also use flex-shaft LED lights (these are 15mm OD, btw) from Lowes for this purpose. These also do double-duty as our AC barrel marking lights. About $16 from Lowes where the batteries are sold.

e
 
Eye lights are mandatory if you want your subject to have some soul in their CU. Compare a CU with & without eyelights, the w/o shot looks dull and the subject looks burnt out or soul less. Now try with an eyelight, see the difference? The subject has a small glint and the personality comes forth; that's very important. Beginners often forget or don't see the need for eyelights and it shows. Use eyelights for CUs; all sorts of good ideas for light sources already presented.
 
EyeLights.jpg

Eye Lights lol
 
10s said:
Eye lights are mandatory if you want your subject to have some soul in their CU. Compare a CU with & without eyelights, the w/o shot looks dull and the subject looks burnt out or soul less. Now try with an eyelight, see the difference? The subject has a small glint and the personality comes forth; that's very important. Beginners often forget or don't see the need for eyelights and it shows. Use eyelights for CUs; all sorts of good ideas for light sources already presented.
Click to expand...

Good post. In a situation when a character should look "soulless," no eye light on a close up can be nice.


It seems that when people talk about eye lights they often talk about two different things. I wish I could quickly get grabs from films to demonstrate what I'm talking about visually.

The two types of eye lights that are talked about, in my experience, are these:

1) A light that creates a glint or "twinkle" in the eyes. This would just be a bright source that is reflecting off the eye. The example I am thinking of is the scene in Signs when Mel Gibson has a 5 minute monologue with his brother about destiny or something. One side of his face is completely black, but there is a very strong eye light in that eye. Shooting a 150w Arri fresnel at his eye through a snoot or black wrap wouldn't work for this effect (unless it was far away) because the light would expose the rest of his face more than wanted. Something like a chinaball across the room would work best for this because the light would fall off before increasing exposure on his face, but it would still reflect in his eye.

2) A light that lights up the entire eyeball. If the scene is very dark, this kind of eye light is needed so that the actor's expression shows. The film that comes to mind that would demonstrate this well is The Illusionist. In many scenes the lighting was quite low-key, but the eye on the dark side of the face seemed to always stay magically lit. I remember a lot of closeups of Giammati that showed this perfectly. In my experience (I'm not sure how they do this on real sets), there's a certain spot where the key light is just hitting one side of the face, and if you move it slightly more, a little bit of light slips over the dip of the nose and lights the eye on the other side of the face. It seemed like they positioned the key to do this in every closeup in The Illusionist. I suppose you could use a 150w fresnel with black wrap to put a tiny patch of light on an eye, but that might be too time consuming and it would limit the movement of the actors. I'm not a big fan of trying to get perfect lighting on closeups with a "Rembrant patch" and perfect key:fill ratio anyway (though it is nice when you light by enhancing natural light and the "perfect closeup" just happens).
 
Yes the "glint" is important for bringing across a character's innerself.

On your number 2 observation, they might be using bounce, foamcore. It has nice refective properties, just enough bounce from a light, say the key, to bring up and define the dark side of the face. The motivation for these "Cheater CU fills" is to make it easier to watch the film and absorb the story without being overly fake or too dark to see and thereby distracting the audience from the story.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top