Mastering Eye Lights | Cinematography 101
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Stay tuned to the end for a chance to win a prize!
Creating eye lights is crucial part of good cinematography. Viewers most easily connect with characters through their eyes. Dark eyes make a character feel empty or dead, whereas having a light in the eye can give life to a character. Therefore an eye light is essential to making relatable characters. Today, director of photography Jon Salmon teaches us 3 different ways to create eye lights, using low eye light, high eye lights, and lighting effects.
In this video, Jon shows us three different methods for creating eye lights.
In our first setup, he uses several lights placed around the actor to create a collection of lights in the eye. In our second setup, he uses abstract shapes of light to create interesting shapes in the eye of the actor for a surreal effect. In the third and last setup, he uses special techniques to create a distinct eye light look.
The main ideas that we will be discussing today about eye lights are how genre relates to eye lights, not pointing a light directly at the subject, and placing your eye light before your key light.
Genre can influence your eye light because different genres allow for different types of eye lights. A naturalistic genre requires normal looking eye lights that you might see in daily life. Music videos or sci-fi projects allow you more freedom with how your eye lights look. You shouldn’t point a light directly at the subject because that might overpower the light shaping the face. Instead, it’s best to pan the eye light off of the face until it doesn’t light up the face but can still be reflected in the eye. Placing your eye light before you place your key light is important because your key light can overpower and fill in the shadows created by the eye light.
Ultimately, as most filmmakers try to tell human stories, learning how to create life-like characters is extremely important. Different lighting styles and directions of lighting the eye will create different feelings and emotions. It is also important to be able to embrace different sources or motivations for your eye lights, as they might lead you to lighting designs that you would never have thought of. There is almost always a way to make the light reflecting in someone's eyes more interesting, and now you know how to do that. But it is also essential to be able to embrace the type of lighting that will complement the talent's face and best tell the story.
Connect with DP Jon: / jonsalmon
Connect with Model Christine: / christinejoelle1
Connect with Host Valentina: / valentinavee
Connect with Content Creator Chetco: / thechetco
Want more free lighting and cinematography tutorials? Subscribe to us so you never miss an episode: goo.gl/QwazdM
🎥How to Light the Cinematic Film Look!
• How to Light the Cinem...
🎥Free Cinematography Lessons From Experts!
www.youtube.co....
🎥Subscribe to Aputure:
/ aputurephoto
/ aputure
/ aputuretech
/ aputuretech
🎥Connect with the A-Team!
Ted - / aputure_ted
Benny - / aputure_benny
🎥GET APUTURE GEAR:
lddy.no/3dkv
🎥MUSIC:
bit.ly/pb_aputure
🎥GRAPHICS:
bit.ly/Aputure_RS
Summary:
Aputure's CZcams channel provides free high-quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.
I heard that in "The Thing" they used the lack of eye light to show who's infected! That would be a pretty badass way of storytelling! :)
I appreciate the efforts you do in terms of tutorials but, extra 10% efforts of explaining and showing ( The how ) would not hurt. We do not see this through virtual reality platform, showing a lot of what’s going behind the scenes will help.
Thanks for the tips A-team. The scene I hope to nominate would be the smoke scene in "If Beale Street Could Talk." The majority of the movie uses eye lights, however the moments when there isn't is when the audience is the most drawn in. This smoke scene is represented the freedom that was unjustly taken from Fonny when doing his craft. I thought this scene was the most creative and distinct in the entire movie, but there were close seconds!
The Godfather is an excellent example of when eye lights don't have to be used. A lot of Fincher's work does this as well! Fight Club as you showed, Zodiac, and Gone Girl, Seven, many others. It's not in every shot he forgoes it, but a majority of the time!
I really appreciate the HOW explained in this video, but would've loved a touch on the WHY and WHEN
4:03 shows a different light setup to what you explained beforehand at 3:47. As you can see the reflections are now horizontal instead of vertical ;-)
Anyhow I liked the video, showing your build process. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah was thining the same thing
The movie with the most beautiful eye lights is King Kong from 2005 on Naomi Watts eyes. I remember sitting in the cinema and I couldnt follow the dialogue because I was constantly asking myself how you could make eyes look that heavenly sparkling beautiful!
In "Dil Se"(1998) Santhosh Sivan ASC, ISC, had use eye light very thoughtfully and creatively by giving eye light to Sharakuh Khan who is a protagonist in the story and as we know him as a character and by making his eyes visible and glossy we can clearly see the innocent and unconditional love in him and on the opposite Manisha Koirala who is a part of the terrorist organization is having deep black eyes in which we can see mystery and nothing else, this creates an amazing amalgamation of eyes with, eye light and without eye light to show the love, passion, and secrets.
5:20 - I think the reason for the redness is something called Raleigh scattering. That sounds intimidating but I'm not trying to scare anyone. I think we can make it make sense.
The reason those pupils are shining is because of light that's coming directly back at us after entering the eye. It bounces off the back of the eye (the retina), and then into the camera. But the eye is very shiny inside. So anything indirect will bounce around a lot, and then it won't be so bright. The more bounces, the darker it gets.
So the question is, does the color of the light have anything to do with how "directly" it bounces back? And yes, it does. When we're looking for "direct" bounces, we don't want the light to bend or change direction or anything. That's not very direct. The eye has to bend light, though, to make a picture we can see. Just like a camera needs lenses. And blue light is going to bend more than red or yellow light. Since in bends more, it bounces more in the eye. Less of it comes out in the reflection. The "warmer" yellow and red light take a more direct path. More of the light manages to bounce from the original light source into the camera.
But he said that the color of the light has no significant influence on this. That still makes sense, even if it sounds wrong after what I just said. "Warm" lights still have "cool" light in them, and "cool" lights still have warm light in them. Especially professional lights, which try to mimic natural light sources. A dim, orange light bulb isn't just emitting orange light. It's emitting red light. It's emitting blue light. It might even be putting out radio waves and a little bit of ultraviolet. All of those things are made of the same stuff, and a light bulb makes all of them come out. The difference is the proportions. So a good "cool" video light will still put out enough "warm" light to bounce out of the eyes. The eyes look warm because the cooler tones bounced around too many times and were sort of "filtered" out.
You learn something new every day.
Inglourious Basterds Ending Scene
My favorite music video eye light has to be the ring lights. It is the best and classic. Enjoyed the video. Best day & Best wishes to you & yours.
Wow that 50% Mirror red-eye effect blew my mind! Fight Club has lots of scenes with no eye lighting that really bring it home....
Fun Fact: Fight Club was shot by, Jeff Cronenweth, the kid of the DP who shot Bladerunner (50% mirror red-eye guy), Jordan Cronenweth. From cool eye lights to no eye lights, in one generation.
Hands down, the selective use of eye light in John Carpenter's version of The Thing was my favorite. Watch it again with that catch light in mind, and you know who's still human.
I had no idea how the last one was achieved, nice to know. In the series Lucifer, there are several scenes without eye lights
Don't want to give the devil an eye light.
Cool stuff guys. Keep up the good work. There's an epic scene in the 1st Star Wars when Luke find his family dead. No eye lights and he looks so hollow. Like the life is sucked out of him.
Super informative - never seen the glass bounce thing - very cool. The biggest problem I've had with eye lights is with people who have to wear glasses (like me - can't do contacts). I can achieve it pretty well with lifting the left and right lights up and directing down, then moving them outward left and right from the subject, and that seems to keep the light source reflection off the glasses. But surely you, Jon or some brilliant person there has other solutions for this? Or, just tell me I nailed it (unlikely). :)
If they're unwilling to do the interview without the glasses, you can definitely lift them higher or lower to get the reflection out of the glasses. If you have prep time and a props person, you can order glasses with AR (Anti-Reflective) coating, and you can sometimes use a polarizing filter to reduce reflection in the glasses. In narratives, I've occasionally embraced reflections in the glasses to achieve a certain effect, as they did with Ed Kemper in Mindhunter.
Great video Vee (as usual)...Best scenes with no eye lights - The Godfather 1972 - Gordan Willis has to be near the top of the list for first to shoot that dark with no eye lights.
Zodiac it's a great example. I think it works because it's such grim world, and taking the eyelight out of the characters makes them feel like the life inside of them has also been taken out.
Great video. When you asked about movies that didn't show specks, I was challenged. One of my favorite movies, Arrival, has a lot of low key lighting without specular highlights, but one scene in particular has always stood out to me. When the main character first hears about the arrival, she watches on a TV facing directly at her. The TV would be an obvious key light and should have some kind of catch in her eyes, but the DP chose to light it from above. No specs at all.
Of course, the big scene in this movie is when she greets the visitors face to face. The key light on this shot is so big, it really doesn't have any highlights either. I took some screen shots to show this. drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OwbfRehF34AIy17co5NW-EbwFRiuNNRB?usp=sharing
Almost all of Whiplash is shot with top down lighting and has no catch lights.
The scenes in Blade RUnner 2049 from the hotel where the main character meets Deckard (Harrison Ford) is so soft it doesn't have highlights, except for one shot that I can tell.
Is that worth an MW?
To make the characters in the movie come to life
“In Bruges” had some tremendous scenes and closeups with tons of tension and no eye lights.
Thanks for the video guys. Love the insights.
Stranger things - 11 in the upside down! Still one of the best scenes, no eye light and amazing cinematography! Would love a 4 minute film school on how to achieve this look!!!
love these! please keep making them
Thank you Branson!
This was super helpful, I'm starting to get into cinematography and creating and channel, awesome work!
"The Godfather " in the scene with Marlon Brando. He is totally dark in the eyes and lit from above.
In the movie "30 Days of night" the vampires all have black eyes. Its pretty cool how evil and sole-less it can make them, look but I also find it interesting that vampires cannot be seen in a reflection but also a reflection cannot be seen in the vampires eyes!
Vee totally digs him
I think most people will say Godfather, which is great. But one scene that stands out is the final scene of Se7en, the use of the lack of eye lights show that hope has been lost. It also drive more tension in the ending as it gives the audience no reference as to what the characters are feeling or thinking. At least, until the very end. I think this is more powerful as it is not just a stylistic choice, but it was a thought the DP had from the get go
That girl had attitude!
Another great episode!! Thanks!
In Ryan Connolly's "Tell" he removes the eyelight while the girl dies. (29:29) super subtle but powerful.
This was a super cool video, have to keep in mind to bring and show emotion in the talents’ eyes for future videos I make. One of my favorite scenes is SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, end scene with Kira and darth maul end scene, most of their conversation, Kira did not have an eyelight even though her eyes were supposed to reflect the hologram. Although it wasn’t there, it was still very moody and dramatic with the camera above her eyeliner that made her feel vulnerable and less powerful than darth maul.
czcams.com/video/FxVoZYZQeBU/video.html
Great work.
Tue God Father!!! Thank you for the chance!
Definitely godfather ,the whole lighting technique revolve around not being able to see the subjects eyes.
Awesome, thanks for tutorial!
Thank you!
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
One of the best scenes in current TV shows, "Say my name" in Breaking Bad Fifth season
Halloween, 1978 one. You never really saw Michaels' eyes let having an eye light. We all know when he's in the building it's about to get real! Very dramatic scenes.
i think is for narrative reazons like when is a western and you have the sun right in the senit and the atmosphere feels heavy and mysterious.
It's back!
Question(s) : Whats a 50% mirror ? The light is reflecting into the mirror from where? You also state the Mirror is placed above the camera lens ? And shooting at a 45 degree angle ? A bit difficult to visualize without guessing . Any diagrams I can refer to ?
Interesting!✌️
I enjoy your lighting tutorials. Thank you. BTW, could you also provide camera used, f-stop, SLog, Raw or sRGB, the camera color profile, ISO and did you color grade?
Where can I find a 50% mirror? I wanna replicate how the pupil of the eye changes color
Great tutorials! It sure helps newbies like myself. I really appreciate how you add lights one at a time to show how you build the shot. Thank you for all your hard work and support that goes into this! I don't know if this counts as a "no eye light" answer but, I like scene from E.T. where Elliot cuts his finger and E.T. heals it with his glowing fingertip. The scene is a prime example of drama with and without eye light. Plus! The eye light is part of the scene adding a higher level of drama but, does not reduce the drama when the eye light is removed.
Thanks for the love Eric, we appreciate you!
How would the 50% mirror be placed in relation to the camera to be able to have a light reflection be cast into the centre of the 50% mirror? i understand the incidence angle = reflection angle but how would it work here? what does the rig look like?
I wanted to learn how to use a key light as an eye light XD showed everything except it
Split Movie:
The first 30 seconds of the scene when Denis tells Casey he bought a shotgun, and he ask her to kill him. before he switch to Jade. I love that scene, the did not use eye light at all to engage the scene.
trying to find a "50 percent mirror" but getting no hits, is there another name for hit by any chance?
The God Father - Love the vid
i love the set of gotham batman and godfather
The end hospital scene in Mindhunter
smiles
I personally feel that your videos are hard to understand for foreign viewer. Last one with a 50% mirror was an eye opener 🤩🍾 great trick.
what about moving subjects ?
Sometimes we don't need eye light in shot which make shot look more natural in terms of lighting.
Hey i from Bangladesh. can you produce your product this country? How can i take advantage of you?
Colonel Walter Kurtz Scene from Apocalypse Now
Monologue "Tears in Rain", final scene of Blade Runner :)
Pulp Fiction
Aren’t these called catch lights? I thought an eye light was a band of glamorous illumination across a starlet’s, or Captain Kirk’s, face. Cool Blade Runner thing. They should have used it in Riddick. Godfather is a good example of dark eye sockets/no catch light.
Why are your light dome iis on backorder? I've been waiting for MONTHS
@@nicoleashley9531 pretty accurate. I ordered mine a while before the fresnel 2x came out. I ordered the fresnel 2x the day it was announced and had it in my hands by the weekend. I dont know why that isn't having any issues but their light dome ii is.
The Godfather (1972) for the WIN! 😎🙏🏼
Do you ever have problems with a scene that is supposed to be lit to emulate motivated ambient light yet light modifiers are seen in the eyes? In the Seventh Seal chess match a light modifier seen in the eyes of Max Von Sydow would have been a problem.
To answer the episode's question, the opening scene in LOGAN doesn't use eye lights. The director wants Logan to seem dark, old, finished, morally corrupt, the "light" in his eyes is gone.
Jakie Chan Police Story, 2002 was shot without eyelighter
The Godfather!
The godfather opening scene with brando as the movie was to empower the emotion they did not want to show the actors eyes most of the scenes.
Seven Samurai
Excellent film!
The Godfather with Vitto Corleone.... they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul.... so it works when you are trying to portray a character with no soul to include no catch light.
Fight club I guess
The of so famous Godfather.
Does "Mandy" with Nick Cage count? The light literally goes out in his eyes when his loved one dies.
I think the godfather is a movie that really didn't use eyelighting 🤔 I think
The Godfather. Most of the scenes.
I think Emmanuel Lubezki didn't use an eye light in "The Revenant"
Comercial music
Godfather is a classic example of not using eye light.
A focus for sweat dont watt light too moon currupt activity mop before broom dust mop lu q broom note
Flat lighting? Really?
Godfather no question. They did the opposite of eye lights lol
“The Others” 2001, a scene where Nicole Kidman removed the cloth and revealed a mirror.
my short film had no eyes lights, and that was a success to me.
Blair Witch Project - didn’t use any lighting, and based on the profit margin - a massive success!
"The Godfather " 1972 movie introduction scene of Marlon Brando _ doesn't use an eyelight
The Godfather First scene starts from " America"
Actually the aputure is doing something very good, but if we want to make more awesome just show us what is happening during the lighting and shooting , my suggestion will not cost aputure extra money , even it can be more profitable because you can have two versions of the same tutorial one is short and the other is long showing the actual work this mean more subscribers more ads because longer time mean ads more , finally I want to say one word your work is like good cook but need some salt which is the BTS
Sesame Street
Many scenes in birdbox... but hey, don't think that was that successfull. But Can't have eyelights if you don't have eyes! Heyo!
Haha great point!
😂🕵️🤔
Well technically The revenant, because it didn't use any lights at all... But also godfather has a lot of good scenes with no eye lights