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to create a feeling in our images it's

often centered around the perception of

a character or subject here our subject

is shrouded in darkness

we can barely make out the features of

his face

this was lit using a projection

attachment fired into a bounce above the

head with our subject sitting just

forward of the light spread to create

shadow on the face

we also had another light reflector dish

attached bouncing from the ceiling to

fill in those Shadows on the face just a

little you can just about see the eyes

and they look lifeless

since there aren't any catch lights in

the eyes it's hard to feel any emotion

from our subject and we may be left to

interpret it ourselves through the music

or the context surrounding the scene the

lack of catch lights might be suggesting

any number of things unfamiliarity

blankness Danger

there's a feeling of mystery or

ambiguity about it

let's add some catch lights into the

eyes whilst trying not to change the

exposure on the face too much

we did this by attaching a small pocket

LED panel just above our camera with the

brightness on the pocket LED turned

right down

compared to the scenario with no catch

lights we're now getting more of a

feeling from our character just from his

eyes

since the light source is small the

catch lights are small and the position

of the light by the camera places the

catch lights quite Central in the eyes

it's direct and we can feel this

directness from our character it almost

feels a bit aggressive

what if we moved our catch light a touch

higher

we boomed our pocket LED just above and

in front of our subject to achieve this

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to the previous catch lights it still

feels like our character is coming from

a place of strength but maybe somewhat

less aggressively

in the right situation this could even

feel somewhat reassuring like a strength

in the Darkness

you can see how changing the placement

of the catch light has changed our

feelings toward the character

[Music]

let's move the catch light down to the

lower part of the eye

[Music]

we simply placed our pocket LED on the

floor below our subject for this setup

in comparison to our previous catch

light scenario we've brought back that

aggressive feeling from the centrally

placed catch lights but by placing them

in an unnatural position toward the

bottom of the eye it now feels much less

like a human aggression and something

more devoid of humanity it looks a bit

scarier

notice how simply changing the position

of our catch lights changes our

perception of the character and even

though our overall lighting remains

similar between each shot the feeling of

the image changes

we can even experiment with changing the

size of the catch light in the eye

here we simply placed some bleached

muslin material on the floor in front of

our subject to reflect into the lower

part of the eyes

we can see when compared to the smaller

Source we've introduced a little more

light to the face but that's not the

only thing that's changed

the larger catch lights brings more

emotion to the eyes and although our

character still appears somewhat angry

he also seems more determined

more human

let's move these larger catch lights to

the top of the eyes

[Music]

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[Music]

we boomed a large gridded OCTA box above

our subject to achieve this

[Music]

in comparison to our smaller catch

lights at the top of the eyes we have an

overall softer look to our character's

face and this isn't just because the

light on the face itself is a bit

different if we focus on how the eyes

feel to us we might get a somewhat more

gentle feeling from our character with

larger catch lights he doesn't feel

quite as strong

there's a feeling of vulnerability

[Music]

matchlights are something that can often

go overlooked or simply used as a

functional way to get some light into

the eyes

but they can also work as a subtle tool

to create and exaggerate feeling an

emotion in your character and image

setting the tone for the ideas contained

within the scene that your audience can

pick up on in a more subconscious way

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