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Its an eye light done for effect , ie the reflection of a small light in the eye,  personally I think its pretty much over done and a bit of a legacy technique , like strong un motivated rim lights , I saw an interview from a doc recently, with a really strong eye light and it was very distracting , 

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I don't think that was a separate eyelight -- the key is fairly frontal so I think it's reflected in the eye.

Here's the thing with eyelights, and why they are more prominent in old movies -- the more contrast the image has, whether because of the film stock, processing, post -- the more that highlights start to pop.  And if you are using a separate eyelight, then an contrast-increasing process, whether skip-bleach processing or the digital imitation of it, will allow you to use a brighter eyelight without it making the shadows much brighter because you're crushing shadow detail.

Also, post-sharpening will make a tiny highlight like that get brighter.

I'm not a fanatic about getting reflections in the eye though I think they help liven up the face, but eyelights are useful in dark scenes like in moonlight because you feel that you can still read the actor's expressions in the dark. Plus that little highlight helps reduce the muddy feeling of an overall dim underexposed image.

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Here three lights are reflected in the eye: the key from frame right (a fluorescent practical on a wall though probably I used a 4’ 4-bank Kino as I got closer), a frontal fill eyelight, and a light reflecting off of the pool on the left to get moving water patterns.

7FEEC85E-7557-4A58-A7D0-D20DBC63A899.jpeg

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Trying to find something recent — this was from Season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. We don’t shoot close-ups on the show so I zoomed into this frame to point out the reflections in the eye. I had a practical desk lamp augmented with a large Litemat 8 off frame right as a key, and I had a Litemat 1 under the lens for fill which often creates a subtle eyelight.

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3381EDEB-69EC-4457-A0BE-6D2EEC65F93E.jpeg

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On 12/23/2022 at 12:33 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

You can see the key light reflected in the eyes in this night shot I did from “Jennifer’s Body”. 

EBF5A82D-FDC7-481F-9105-E9E7A97A9EE6.jpeg

David, for a shot like this, how choreographed is the actor? The Rembrandt lighting is very dialed in and I could see losing the catchlight in her left eye with just a subtle turn of her head. Would the actor be given a very specific eyeline?

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