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'eye' lights


Guest shane grace

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Guest shane grace

Am shooting on 5248 this month and would like to add an eyelight for close-ups/head shots. have never used one before but often hear about them being used. my overall lighting will be large /soft bounced tungsten from a distance.

 

any trusted techniques?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

SHANE

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One possibility:

 

If you go to the home page of www.dedolight.com and open their catalogue in .pdf format you will find something called an eye attachment on page 52, together with some examples of its use. It connects to the projection attachment discussed at page 48 of the catalogue. I have one of these for some still photography that I've been doing and it is pretty nifty.

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Hello Shane grace,

The small white spots we achieve by the lighting of the eyes are called catch

lights. You will see these small white spots in good protraiture work. Trouble is

that we may get bored with too much eyelight all the time. You can create eye-

light by lowering your key light just enough to allow light to reach the eyes. Of

course your light has to be positioned so as to light both eyes. I am assuming

now that you are shooting a close-up. Position your key light to light the actor's

face straight on. Then slightly raise your key light above the the eyes of the act-

or thus modeling or giving shape to the face but still maintaining catch light in

the eyes. You will be able to see the catch light in both eyes. There is a draw-

back to this style of lighting, try it and see if you can figure the drawback out.

A better way to light would be to direct the key light to the short side of the act-

ors's face Vs. the broad side. This achieves a 3-D type of effect. It also places

catch lights in the eyes. The catch lights will be on the side of the eyes where

the key light is coming from. Now if you follow me we will use twin key lights

Place one key light to achieve 45 degree lighting of the face. Take your second

key light and lower it a little bit while moving it off the side of the camera,away

from the camera. This second key light will place catch lights in the eyes. The

second key light must be 1/2 the intensity of the first or primary key light. The

primary key will provide dominant lighting. You can photograph male and female

actors/actresses with this style of lighting. Head and shoulders and 3/4 length.

You want to achieve a three demensional look with your lighting. Learn to con-

trol and place your key light. Watch the effect your key light has on the actor's

face. You can also obtain catch light,eyelight by placing a diffused light source,

say 350 watts out in front of the actor at waist height. It will be on a straight line

with the camera and lens and below the camera. This will add sparkle to the eyes.

Hope some of these techniques will be helpful to you.

 

Greg Gross

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Guest shane grace

Thankyou for all your replies and advice! - The shoot went fine - got some 'catchlights' in the eyes as desired.

 

Shane.

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