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Kamio effect without Kamio price; eye light
Two questions in one post:
Is there a good, cheap substitute for the Kamio ring-light?
When using a Chimera or Diva for key in an interview situation, sometimes I try to add a small light near the camera just to give another highlight to the subject’s eyes (sometimes the one key just seems to result in a dead look in the eyes, imho). I’m not really satisfied with this (I’m using a 150 watt Pepper), and wonder whether other folks have a better solution.
— Bob C
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4 Replies
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Bob,
The Kamio is available for rental as well.
Last I checked it was about $150/day direct from Kinoflo.
Tony Salgado
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Thanks Tony. I’m on the other coast from them, but the suggestion of renting one is great — I’ll look locally.
— Bob C
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I have read that the circular look of the Kamio is a dead give away that it is “a Kamio”.
While I think it sounds like a good idea. Do you think that the circle in the eye would be too much for a main eyelight in a film?
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The Kamio does make a circular eyelight if used close to the subject; but for me it’s usefulness for this purpose is limited to shots where the subject is meant to look into the lens, otherwise the direction (and placement) of the specular in the eye is wrong.
In interviews I usually key with a Chimera (or a large Kino) and as long as the light reaches into the eyes it produces a sufficient specular reflection so that an additional eyelight is not necessary.
There are times for dramatic purposes and other reasons, that the key light does not reflect in the eyes; in these cases as additional eye light (like the little Pepper you refer to) is called for. If you’re using a fill light that will often suffice for the eye light as well.
In feature films they often use an on camera light that can be shuttered down to almost nothing to put that little sparkle in the eye.
JS
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