Catch light

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Catch lights in a child's eyes. Deena2 ps by cbszeto.png
Catch lights in a child's eyes.

Catch light or catchlight is a light source that causes a specular highlight in a subject's eye in an image; the term may also refer to the highlight itself. [1] The catch light is either an artifact for a lighting method, or purposely engineered to add a glint or spark to a subject's eye during photography. The technique is effective in both still and motion picture photography; helping to draw attention towards the subject's eyes, which may otherwise get lost among other elements in the scene.

Contents

History

The lighting instrument was invented during filming of The Lodger , on which Oberon's husband was the cinematographer. Lucien Ballard, wanted to alleviate Oberon's facial scars following a car accident in 1937, successfully done through make up and good lighting; attaching a small light mount on the side of a camera. [2]

Logistics

The Obie light is a small, compact, three bulb light apparatus whose source emits a broad, continuously adjustable pattern within a two-and-a-half stop range. The bulbs come in three basic settings ranging from low to high which can be finely adjusted within each level by disturbing the bulbs and its compound reflector. [3] As a focused light source, it is usually fairly dim and white in color, as to not affect and overpower any other part of the scene or face. Many other lighting methods, however, are known for the distinctive catch light they produce. Among those methods are: a ring flash, which produces several highlights in a ring, and large softboxes, which produce large, square highlights.

In a patent for an Image Editing Apparatus, a catch light makes it "possible to emphasize or add to an expression on a subject's face". [4] There are different optimum catch lights for each definitive facial expression made by actors. Its process reflects light from the surface of the cornea by a built-in flash unit, and is then exposed by an "image pickup element".

A catch light is not the same as a red-eye effect. In general, red-eye is an undesired effect (caused by the reflection of light from the retina inside the back of the eyeball), while catch lights on the eye remain aesthetically desirable. Especially in portraiture, eyes without catch lights are often said to appear dull or lifeless. [5] Lighting is often arranged in studio portraits specifically to create attractive catch lights.

Usage in film and television

War artist Thomas Lea's The 2000 Yard Stare shows the soldier's eyes lacking catchlight due to his "lifelessness" Thomas C. Lea III - That Two-Thousand Yard Stare - Original.jpg
War artist Thomas Lea's The 2000 Yard Stare shows the soldier's eyes lacking catchlight due to his "lifelessness"

This method most often appears as bright spots and reflections of surroundings that can contain entire images in the subject's eyes. This property is sometimes used as a plot point in movies and television. Typically, this trope is represented by computer magnification of an image to gain information about the surroundings of the person being photographed, essentially using the eye as a mirror. Audiences usually perceive eyes without specular highlights to be lifeless or evil, and for this reason many cinematographers specifically eliminate catch lights on antagonistic characters. It is also commonly found in anime, usually used in an over-dramatized manner to show different emotions accompanied by exaggerated expressions.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-eye effect</span> Photography appearance

The red-eye effect in photography is the common appearance of red pupils in color photographs of human eyes. It occurs when using a photographic flash at low lighting or at night. When a flash passes through the eyes and rebounds at the back of the eye, it causes a red reflex in an image, turning the subject's eyes red. The hue is mostly caused by a high concentration of blood in the choroid. The effect can also be influenced by the near proximity of the flash and camera lens. In children, a different hue red reflex, such as white or yellow, may indicate an illness. In animals, a similar effect could cause their eyes to change colors in photographs.

The Phong reflection model is an empirical model of the local illumination of points on a surface designed by the computer graphics researcher Bui Tuong Phong. In 3D computer graphics, it is sometimes referred to as "Phong shading", particularly if the model is used with the interpolation method of the same name and in the context of pixel shaders or other places where a lighting calculation can be referred to as “shading”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light meter</span> Device used to measure the amount of light

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phong shading</span> Interpolation technique for surface shading

In 3D computer graphics, Phong shading, Phong interpolation, or normal-vector interpolation shading is an interpolation technique for surface shading invented by computer graphics pioneer Bui Tuong Phong. Phong shading interpolates surface normals across rasterized polygons and computes pixel colors based on the interpolated normals and a reflection model. Phong shading may also refer to the specific combination of Phong interpolation and the Phong reflection model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinematography</span> Art of motion picture photography

Cinematography is the art of motion picture photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flash (photography)</span> Device producing a burst of artificial light

A flash is a device used in photography that produces a brief burst of light at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. The main purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light. Flash refers either to the flash of light itself or to the electronic flash unit discharging the light. Most current flash units are electronic, having evolved from single-use flashbulbs and flammable powders. Modern cameras often activate flash units automatically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shading</span> Depicting depth through varying levels of darkness

Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models or illustrations by varying the level of darkness. Shading tries to approximate local behavior of light on the object's surface and is not to be confused with techniques of adding shadows, such as shadow mapping or shadow volumes, which fall under global behavior of light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underwater photography</span> Genre of photography

Underwater photography is the process of taking photographs while under water. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while diving on surface supply, snorkeling, swimming, from a submersible or remotely operated underwater vehicle, or from automated cameras lowered from the surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fill flash</span> Photographic technique

Fill flash is a photographic technique used to brighten deep shadow areas, typically outdoors on sunny days, though the technique is useful any time the background is significantly brighter than the subject of the photograph, particularly in backlit subjects. To use fill flash, the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to correctly expose the background, and the flash is fired to lighten the foreground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cube mapping</span> Method of environment mapping in computer graphics

In computer graphics, cube mapping is a method of environment mapping that uses the six faces of a cube as the map shape. The environment is projected onto the sides of a cube and stored as six square textures, or unfolded into six regions of a single texture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Key light</span> First light in a photographic or filmmaking lighting scheme

The key light is the first and usually most important light that a photographer, cinematographer, lighting cameraman, or other scene composer will use in a lighting setup. The purpose of the key light is to highlight the form and dimension of the subject. The key light is not a rigid requirement; omitting the key light can result in a silhouette effect. Many key lights may be placed in a scene to illuminate a moving subject at opportune moments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fill light</span> Lighting used to reduce the contrast of a scene

In television, film, stage, or photographic lighting, a fill light may be used to reduce the contrast of a scene to match the dynamic range of the recording media and record the same amount of detail typically seen by eye in average lighting and considered normal. From that baseline of normality, using more or less fill will make shadows seem lighter or darker than normal, which will cause the viewer to react differently, by inferring both environmental and mood clues from the tone of the shadows.

This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloss (optics)</span> Optical property describing the ability of a surface to reflect light in a specular direction

Gloss is an optical property which indicates how well a surface reflects light in a specular (mirror-like) direction. It is one of the important parameters that are used to describe the visual appearance of an object. Other categories of visual appearance related to the perception of regular or diffuse reflection and transmission of light have been organized under the concept of cesia in an order system with three variables, including gloss among the involved aspects. The factors that affect gloss are the refractive index of the material, the angle of incident light and the surface topography.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ring flash</span> Camera flash equipment

A ring flash is a circular light that is often operated with a camera lens in the center to take photographs. Unlike point light sources, a ring flash can illuminate a subject with minimal shadows by closely and evenly surrounding the optical axis of the camera lens. This makes it a popular choice for various types of photography, including macro, portrait and fashion photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reflector (photography)</span> Reflective surface used to redirect light towards a given subject or scene, used in photography

In photography and cinematography, a reflector is an improvised or specialised reflective surface used to redirect light towards a given subject or scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photographic lighting</span> How a light source illuminates the scene or subject of a photograph

Photographic lighting refers to how a light source, artificial or natural, illuminates the scene or subject that is photographed; put simply, it is lighting in regards to photography. Photographers can manipulate the positioning and the quality of a light source to create visual effects, potentially changing aspects of the photograph such as clarity, tone and saturation to create an accurate rendition of the scene.

Specular holography is a technique for making three dimensional imagery by controlling the motion of specular glints on a two-dimensional surface. The image is made of many specularities and has the appearance of a 3D surface-stippling made of dots of light. Unlike conventional wavefront holograms, specular holograms do not depend on wave optics, photographic media, or lasers.

References

  1. "Canon Flash terminology page". Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-07-23.
  2. Liebman, Lisa. "The Fascinating Old Hollywood Story That Inspired The Last Tycoon's Best Plotline". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  3. "Arriflex Introduces Obie Light ". Back Stage LLC. Back Stage (Archive: 1960-2000). 3 June 1988. ProQuest   962888255.
  4. "Patents; Image Editing Apparatus, Method for Controlling Image Editing Apparatus, and Recording Medium Storing Image Editing Program". Patent Application Approval Process 2012, Politics & Government Week. 25 October 2012. ProQuest   1112851318.
  5. Hicks, Jake (17 August 2017). "5 Classic Portrait Lighting Mistakes You May Be Making". Petapixel. Retrieved 17 August 2017.