The Westcott Eyelighter Will Give Wonderful Eyes. In Camera
Nov 5, 2014
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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One of the holy grails of beauty retouching is perfect eyes. Actually, getting good lighting on the eyes would probably be one of the first things you would lean in a beauty retouching workshop, maybe after perfecting skin. One of the “secrets” to getting good light on the eyes is getting a slight moon-shaped highlight on the bottom of the eye. Dave Piper covered that a while back on his eye’s retouching tutorial, but what if you wanted to get this in camera?
I just stumbled upon this great lighting modifier over at Neil van Niekerk’s Tangents blog. It is called the The Eyelighter and only does one thing, but it does it well: It provides a light that gives an arched reflection in the eye.
Neil did a comparison of lighting a person with and without the eyelighter and it actually provides more than just nice highlights, it also provides a great glamor fill light.
It is not a small modifier, nor is it a cheap one. Fully extended it is about 1.5 meter over 0.5 meters and it will set you back about a third of a grand, so it may not be the first modifier to put in your bag. If you are just starting out you may want to consider a foam board for under fill instead.
What did you say? You want a full 25 minutes primer on this modifier? Got it:
[Westcott The Eyelighter | $300 via Neil van Niekerk’s Tangents (who was also kindly allowed us to use the photos]
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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13 responses to “The Westcott Eyelighter Will Give Wonderful Eyes. In Camera”
Awesome idea… I will bend a coupe of pvc pipes and cover with reflective material and I will save $295 usd
I was just thinking the same thing.
A couple of heat bent pipes, a 10 pack bag of Ts, 5/16 nut, and 5/16 bolt with knob. If you cut the bent pipes in half, it will fit in on of those canvas chair bags. With a little ingenuity on the joints and the right paint, it wouldn’t even look like PVC.
If you do, let us know. I would love to show the project
Wondered about the patent, and found it – Portable photography booth and improved light reflector assembly (US5383099 A). The patent also expired. The booth is actually pretty interesting and looks like with a stack of PVC you could make one.
I made my own last weekend, heated and bent pvc and sewed my own reflective material onto black backing. $35 total made in one afternoon.
wanna share it with the readers on DIYP? ping me at editor@diyphotography.net I would love to post such a project.
Cool. I’ll be in touch later this evening!
Wonderful!
Write up sent via Google Docs and pics via Dropbox. Enjoy!
$10 car reflector and some fiberglass rods.
I’m not super cheap with my photo equipment, but I want results for my investment.
I don’t see that here. Maybe it will show up on larger than life prints, but what I have seen in the sample images here and elsewhere, could be achieved with any other reflector… for 5% of the cost.
To me, that makes the eyelighter just another novelty gadget.
This is a great tutorial.
Thank you so much for this. I can wait to bend some pvc and make one of these.
I think I’ll attach a quick release plate, and mount it on a tripod with a ball head. It will be good to have a bit of angle and height versatility.