size of pupil

[nyschulte]

Hi,

This week-end i played with a halogen light (Hedler Primalux 25s) for portraiture.

I was amazed what effect the continuous bright light brings out on the detail of one eye:
http://www.photoneckel.eu/cpg/albums/people/portraits/lyn_new/_D212250_brd.jpg

This is not retouched.

The major inconvenient of this solution is the massive heat generated by 2 x 2550 W lighting!

I was never able to achive the same result when using strobes.
I tried the modeling light at full power on a strobe which does not fire with the remainging strobes, but it did not help.

Does anybody have an idea how similar results can be obtained without postprocessing when using strobes?

Nicolas

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Does anybody have an idea how similar results can be obtained without postprocessing when using strobes?

I assume you are looking for methods to use flash and yet get small pupils (and lots of iris detail). You'll need to either increase the ambient light level, or shine a bright spotlight straight in the eyes. Since the human eye pupil reacts to intensities that roughly subtend an angle of 1 degree or more, the spotlight should have a diameter of, say, more than 1/50th of the distance from which it shines. You can use double that diameter to make sure it works, but you can experiment depending on the brightness of the light.

If the flash power exceeds the intensity of the spotlight by a significant margin, then the spot won't illuminate the eye enough for exposure/color issues, although a glimmer/reflection will be seen.

Bart

[Asher Kelman]

Pre-flash takes care of this in lesser cameras.

You might try a speedlight set to preflash added to your main light.

I minor issue: There is, BTW, the beginnings of a pterigion, I believe just on the lateral border of the iris. :)

Would be nice to clean that off! That's the price you pay for detail rich images.

Asher