how can I get a little more light in his eyes, but maintain the same look?

[Iain Browne]

Shot this mostly as an exercise the other day. I really like the look of it, but I think I need just a little more light in his eyes. How would you do that without really introducing any shadows or changing the contrast too much?

 

It's just two lights, a 500 watt bounced from the right, and a 250 watt bounced from the left. The windows made for a nice back light.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Small very dim bulb right in front of his eyes. Something I may do would be a tiny little 150 w dimmed down bouncing into a white card. The thing is eyes are very reflective, so you often just need a white thing in front of them which they can reflect.

[David Mullen ASC]

You just need a good angle of reflection for the eye light, it doesn't have to be bright. Often I put something right under the lens like a 1'x1' Litepanel dimmed way down, or a Litepanel Micro. But anything would work, a bare light bulb even, it just needs to be next to the lens, and if the person has a heavy brow and tends to look down, you're more likely to get the reflection if the light is under the lens rather than over the lens, though on a long lens from farther back, it matters less whether the eye light is over or under. A larger source like a bounce into a card creates a bigger reflection but it also tends to spread around more.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

You know, it may just be me, but I am never really happy with the way a bare bulb looks in the eyes especially on digital. I always feel it's too small of a point most of the time. China ball can be nice; but of course, as mentioned spread becomes a problem especially with digital which tend to dig more into the shadows or so I observe.

[David Mullen ASC]

Yes, a bare bulb is a tiny reflection but in a tight close-up, that may be enough. This is one reason I like the 1'x1' Litepanel, the reflection is large enough to be seen, but not too large, plus it can take an egg crate grid and can be battery-operated. Plus is flat-enough to fit under a lens without sticking out too far, unlike a Rifa, which I also use sometimes.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I'll have to try an LED sometime. Before the move I had build a little box; maybe 6" long and 4" high out of foamcore into which I'd put a small 25W bulb with some diffusion on the front, whatever scrap I had handy which I'd tape onto the matte-box on occasion. Obviously rather delicate hence it didn't make the trip (and I had to make a few of them here and again) but i always liked it. Never went to make it battery powered though-- perhaps time for a v2.

[David Mullen ASC]

Here are two frames that show the use of the Rifa 44 under the lens for an eye light:

 

 

[Franz Salvatierra]

You can also put up a silk and shoot through it away from set(hopefully out the window or something). The big bright spot will be in there, not the light.