Eye light with top light?

C

calster.

Active member
When top lighting someone and not wanting to even up the light to much, what do you guys use to get a nice eye light.

I've got 4 bank 4ft kino overhead and it looks great, I'd just like to see a speck in the eyes, but when i get anything else low enough to do that, it washes out my nice shadows.

thanks

p.s. this is the first time i've used kino's and holy ****, they look awesome!

~cal
 
Yup, that's the problem with eyelights. Eyelights we use in interviews are typically an Arri 150W Fresnel with the Arri snoot and some opal. Just get a small unit in line with the actor's eyeline (direction they're looking in) with a hand squeezer (dimmer). I've even seen DPs on major Hollywood features and film TV shows use Maglight flashlights (color corrected with gel) with Foamcore snoots for eyelights!
 
Eyelights are definitly the hardest to control, NBC Shooter is right on the mark. If you have those little on camera lights you can use those handheld or hollywood. Other then that its just trial and error until it looks right.
 
The trick is to just dial the eye-light low enough so that it does not act as a fill light. Remember, the eye is actually reflecting the light source back, so the light does not need to throw much light.

You could either do as others have said:
Take a small unit with some diffusion and scrimed way down, and then walk it back far from the subject, and place it in such a position that the person’s eye will catch the light.

You could also:
Use a 4x4 bounce board over camera (or at a good angle to catch the eye) and bounce a dim unit into it. The eye will reflect this square source also, just a variation of eye light.
 
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