You might like the feathered look it produces I did. Also using that diffused AlienBees B800 as the main light, I added Westcott’s 400 ws Strobelite Plus as a side/backlight placed as shown in the illustration, producing results with a slightly different looking catchlight than my initial test. In addition to lighting the area under a subject’s face, the Eyelighter solves a major problem with deep-set eyes, especially with male subjects, by fully illuminating the eyes, all that catchlight hoopla notwithstanding.īecause of her travel schedule, I haven’t used my wife Mary as a model for a long time but drafted her for this test. Our initial conclusion was that a broad source placed near camera position and the Eyelighter produced better than acceptable results. Here’s what we found: Using an AlienBees B800 with an Omni reflector (see article in the 2014 Expert Photo Techniques) the results looked good and we were getting the characteristic catchlight so we broadened and softened the source by attaching a diffusion sock to the reflector. My friend, photographer Cliff Lawson and I fine-tuned the first setup using ourselves as models. Making it work, on the other hand, takes a little time as you experiment with different light sources and placement of both the Eyelighter and the main light. ![]() Not so large that you wouldn’t mind taking the Eyelighter on a location shoot when you had more than a few headshots but I’m guessing it will spend more time as a dedicated headshot setup in a studio, even a small one like my 11x15-foot home studio.Īssembling the Eyelighter is simple, whether you use the supplied directions or not. As you can see from the illustrations, it’s also big. The Eyelighter measures 58x33x23.5 inches, comes with a carrying case for storage and transport, and, like most Westcott products, is ruggedly constructed. Unlike three-piece, multi-reflector kits, this catchlight is seamless, without gaps. Specifically designed for beauty and portrait photography, the Eyelighter reflects an arched light up toward your subject, producing not only flattering light but also a catchlight that follows the natural curve of the iris. ![]() Westcott’s Eyelighter Reflective Panel addresses the problem by providing an arc-shaped surface that matches the natural curvature of the human eye. Traditional flat reflectors do a good job of bouncing fill light when placed under a subject’s chin for portrait lighting but catchlights in their eyes can sometimes appear less than natural. Camera was an Olympus OM-D E-M10 with a Tamron 14-150mm lens (at 61mm) exposure was 1/125 sec at f/11 and ISO 200. ![]() I really do think they're one of the most underrated photography tools and every portrait photographer should have one in their arsenal.Here’s a headshot of my wife Mary made with the Westcott Eyelighter and the lighting setup shown. You could even ask your model to help you if you’re doing close-up beauty-style portraits.Įven as the owner of dedicated photography lights, I still regularly just use a reflector – even if I have my lights with me. ![]() Even when shooting alone (which I do mostly) I would find ingenious ways of balancing it, holding it, or wedging it between things so that the light landed in all the right places. I have to own up and admit that I am lucky enough to now own my own photography lighting kits but before I saved up the money to buy them, I pretty much only shot with a reflector. If you’re going on vacation and luggage space is tight then a reflector can be a flat-pack key to professional-looking portraits which also has the virtue of being less delicate than pricey flash heads. They’re a little fiddly to fold down at first – think smaller, easier modern pop-up tent, so if you've mastered that you'll be a dab hand! Once you’ve got the hang of it, I’d go as far as saying it’s quite satisfying. Before/after: A photo taken using just natural light (left) and a photo taken with a silver reflector with the sun at 45 degrees to the model (right) (Image credit: Hannah Rooke)Īnother big advantage of reflectors over lights is that they’re super lightweight and take up virtually no space.
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