Eye reflection lightning

[Jonas Kleinalstede]

Hey guys,

my first post here, so please forgive me if its a basic/dumb question.

I want to create a smilier shot to this:

 

 

How should I light the subject? Do I have to black out the rest of the room?

 

Any Advice would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks a lot,

Jonas

[Toby Bajrovic]

I legit was trying to figure this out a few months back haha. Would love some help. Great film too.

[David Mullen ASC]

I recently did a similar shot but not as tight, I was using the Fujinon 75-400mm at 400mm at minimal focus, which is 6 1/2 feet. I think to match this shot, I would have needed a 600mm at 2 1/2 feet, which probably means a diopter. Trouble with using something like a 100mm macro lens is that the camera would end up only inches from the face, making it hard to reflect something other than the camera in the eye.

 

In this case, youll note that there is no lighting reflected in the eye. The eye is like a spherical mirror, it reflects quite a wide view of what it is facing, so here the exposure on the eye is coming from the bounce off of the bright subject in the reflection. Also, the camera itself is likely in this reflection, camera-left of the doctors arm, blacked-out.

 

Putting a bright spotlight on the doctor might have been enough to cause the rest of the room to fall-off but it probably was cut with flags to keep the light off of the camera hidden in the shadow. In my version, I used a Source-4 Leko with a 36 degree lens to spotlight the person facing the eyeball, the Leko made it easier to reduce spill around the room. I suspect though in this case, they might have used a 2K or a 5K at full spot on the doctor. If you metered the doctor with an incident meter, he probably was more than 2-stops overexposed but this is the sort of shot where you can almost set the exposure by eye.

[Giacomo Girolamo]

It's a picture from Dario Argento's Opera? Because if I remember correctly, the movie has some shots similar to that one.

[Jonas Kleinalstede]

It's a picture from Dario Argento's Opera? Because if I remember correctly, the movie has some shots similar to that one.

 

No, its "Blue" from Kieslowskis three colors trilogy :)

 

I recently did a similar shot but not as tight, I was using the Fujinon 75-400mm at 400mm at minimal focus, which is 6 1/2 feet. I think to match this shot, I would have needed a 600mm at 2 1/2 feet, which probably means a diopter. Trouble with using something like a 100mm macro lens is that the camera would end up only inches from the face, making it hard to reflect something other than the camera in the eye.

 

In this case, youll note that there is no lighting reflected in the eye. The eye is like a spherical mirror, it reflects quite a wide view of what it is facing, so here the exposure on the eye is coming from the bounce off of the bright subject in the reflection. Also, the camera itself is likely in this reflection, camera-left of the doctors arm, blacked-out.

 

Putting a bright spotlight on the doctor might have been enough to cause the rest of the room to fall-off but it probably was cut with flags to keep the light off of the camera hidden in the shadow. In my version, I used a Source-4 Leko with a 36 degree lens to spotlight the person facing the eyeball, the Leko made it easier to reduce spill around the room. I suspect though in this case, they might have used a 2K or a 5K at full spot on the doctor. If you metered the doctor with an incident meter, he probably was more than 2-stops overexposed but this is the sort of shot where you can almost set the exposure by eye.

Thank you so much, I will not be able nor do I want to do it exactly as the original shot, but your input still helps a lot :)

Would you be able to share the image you created? I would be very keen to see your result!

 

I legit was trying to figure this out a few months back haha. Would love some help. Great film too.

 

Yeah, its a beautiful film, the first couple minutes with the car scene shaped my taste for cinematography a lot, it has a sort of minimal realist beauty to it :)

[David Mullen ASC]

I can’t share any images, not until at least after it has been released and that won’t be until the fall probably.