Catch light in the shadoweyes shadow side eye.

[Guest human]

I see in 90 deg lighting, the shadow side eye glitters. I don't see how that can be done in normal sidelighting, even with a reflector without brightening the shadows.

 

Pleas explain how you do that.

 

Thanks,

 

Hassan

[David Mullen ASC]

Some actors have a shallow enough nose bridge that even in sidelighting, the light will catch the second eye. If not you can try a small eyelight, dark enough just to get reflected in the eye without filling in the shadows.

 

A higher-contrast format or process will help -- I find that when I'm doing a silver retention process to the film or crushing the blacks in the video transfer, the glint in the eye will remain even after I've crushed down the shadow detail.

[Jayson Crothers]

A simple way to get an eye glint without filling up your shadows is to simply take a small unit like a tweenie, pile on about 12 layers of diffusion (such as 250), and place it near camera - place according to your eye and taste, but I find it to be a quick way to get glint in the eye and not affect the rest of my lighting.

 

Or fix it in post....... (kidding!)

[Michael Nash]

Use a small soft source, not too bright (dim light or a silvered bounce card) and back it off until the fill level drops enough that you don't notice it. The larger the source, the easier it is to see in the eye when the light level is low.

 

When you "On/off" the light or bounce card you'll see that it does actually kick up the fill level about 1/3-1/2 stop, it's just that when it's soft and in place you don't notice the difference.