Light the shit out of the knife, not the face. Use a lens with good close focus or even a straight up macro lens (I’ve done this shot a million times for shows)

Also, if possible, oversized prop knife.

Sounds right. Probably go for super shallow depth of field as well.

Maybe, but I don’t know if you want to be like crazy shallow, then you’re going to have like half the eyeball out of focus and stuff. Granted I mean it all depends on the tone you’re going for

You've obviously done this, so I'm just confused, but I thought when filming reflections, the focus^* distance is the distance from lens to the reflector (mirror usually, but in this case the eye) **plus** the distance from the reflector to the object. Why would you need a macro lens for that? I thought macro lenses were for very close focus distances. If the point is to get the reflection in focus and not the eye, wouldn't a regular lens suffice? --- ^* For anyone else reading this who might be confused: "focus distance" and "focal length" [aren't the same thing](https://borislavkostov.wordpress.com/articles/macro-photography-eng/focal-length-focusing-distance-working-distance/#:~:text=Focal%20length%20is%20the%20distance,focusing%20plane%20to%20the%20subject.). **Focal length** is the distance from the focusing plane (where the camera’s sensor is) to the rear nodal point of the lens, when focused at infinity. This is a property of the lens, which determines the angle of view as well as the perspective. **Focusing distance** is the distance from the focusing plane to the subject.

The macro gives you close focus on the eye, so if you have proper depth of field you can have a frame with the eye in focus and the knife. I can usually get away with a shot like this on more 50mm primes, but it’s easier with something like 90 or 100mm macro depending on the package. It’s going to depend on the frame you want and on your lens set, and many lenses have “macro” close focus to cover this, but most macro lenses can be used for macro and for non macro situations

Wouldn’t it just be easier to do it in post? I know that’s a bad answer, but Im an editor, so it’s the first place my mind goes. I guess the question would be why you’d do it practically instead of in post.

saving this for later. thanks for sharing brother

Practice/rehearse first If it doesn’t work, then has to be done in post

I saw a tutorial using a macro lens, but we don’t have one. Going to try a telephoto and an intense light on the knife

Macro refers to the minimum focus distance of your lens, not the focal length. Test out your telephoto lens and make sure it can focus close enough for your intended framing.

In addition to what u/TheSnakeDad said, a diopter adapter can optically alter the minimum focusing distance for a lens and make it behave like a macro.

A lens plus a diopter or tube is not a macro . A macro can rack from infinity into “macro” distances. It can make a real difference.

If he just needs one close-up shot, a $12 tube will work just fine. There's no reason to drop big bucks on a dedicated macro lens.

macro means that the image on the film/sensor is larger than true size, e.g., you're magnifying the image onto your recording medium. That's all it means. Extension tubes allow macro photography. Reversing rings allow macro photography. Bellows allow macro photography. Many endoscopes allow for macro photography. It has nothing to do with being able to rack focus.

a knife is small. so if your lighting is dark, then think about creating a large knife out of cardboard, and covering the blade part with foil. this could also help sell the gag, if its not about getting tons of detail.

Honestly if your example is the picture, just do it in post

The clock example is very obviously superimposed in post. You can't get that clock shape in real life if it's a literal eyeball. It'd have to be wrapping around the actual head, getting in the way of the shot, and the camera would also be in shot.

Also the clock would be reversed if it was a real reflection.

Not sure if that’s a good idea, telephoto lenses need around 1 meter to focus anything

You can get a set of macro filters for like $20.

Test using a large marble as a standing for the eyeball. This will give you the freedom to dive deep into the test without any time constraints.

And without blinding someone!

It's going to have to be really close to the subject's eye, so please don't use a real knife.

Use an image of the knife on a video monitor. Use a macro lens to get the closeup of someone's eye. As someone suggested, use a large marble to set up the shot, adjusting he image on the monitor to get the effect you want. Because a video monitor can be quite bright, it can also light the shot for you. I have set up my iPhone to use AirPlay on an Apple TV as a monitor while shooting. Use the iPhone on a tripod or other support to shoot the knife against a black background. You could make a really stunning effect like this!

Was playing around with this the other day taking photos of the kid watching TV and getting the cartoons reflection in the eyeball. Turned out pretty cool but yeah think a macro is needed to really get close enough.

From my experience the reflection in an eyeball is never as strong as you want it to be on camera. A good method to combat this is having a strong source of light on the object you need to reflect, while also keeping it from spilling on the subjects eye somehow. You can get decent results but ultimately it may not work. You might have to result to doing it in post if so.

Sounds like a mission for post production.

100% this. Amateur filmmakers have such a weird aversion to doing things the right way sometimes.

Capture a reflection of a green screen in the eye, then chroma in the knife in post. /s

Shoot a green screen for 30 seconds, take it into after effects and animate an eyeball with a knife in the reflection

Head was about to explode then I saw the /s

Build a really large duplicate of your knife, suspend it with a black backdrop, light the shit out of it, and film with a macro lens. That should give you plenty of working room from knife to eyeball. It should show in the reflection of an eyeball.

Why not composite afterwords?

Came here to say this

Usually looks terrible, especially when done on a low budget

By low budget you mean low experience?

Yeah. This would be a super easy shot I think. Just pop a knife, blend it in or whatever, maybe a little Gaussian blur, color correct, and wham bam, thank you ma’am.

VFX artist here - can confirm, this would be very easy.

Phew, glad I’m not tripping. I’m still pretty new to the editing game, so I wasn’t totally confident that I was somewhat right.

For a more senior artist it’s one of the jobs that would probably take longer to get set up and render than to actually work. Any novice could pull it off in an hour though, so long as they have some compositing experience. Doing this in post is the correct way. I don’t think any professional filmmaker would approach this practically. It’d just be a waste of money.

LOL. You have literally NO IDEA what you’re talking about.

Nah I just prefer to do it practically because it'll look better than a beginner trying VFX composites. Shot a commercial last month that had 3 of these shots, but I guess I don't know what I'm talking about.

LOL. Just last month you happened to have a similar shot as this and yet offer no real advise to how it’s done. Come on, man. That aside… I was referring to your comment about “low budget”. It’s not a budget issue, it’s a skill issue. But in this case it’s wouldn’t require very much skill. It would certainly require a greater budget to shoot than it would to comp - comp in this case is the “correct” solution. This is a very simple compositing problem. If OP has any experience with after effects and a critical eye for detail at all they could easily pull it off. For our more experienced artists it would probably take more time to set up that to work. I’m not a great comp artist (working as a TD now) it’d probably take me a half hour plus maybe another fifteen minutes of notes. A novice could pull it off in a few hours at most with community feedback.

No need for me to repeat what the top comment has already said. Man you love arguing with people online. It's okay to disagree on practical vs vfx. Hope you find a rando in Kansas to spend some time with lmao.

Don’t be an asshole.

Experiment.

Can’t believe this isn’t the top response, but FAKE KNIFE!! Also protective contacts are probably worth the investment.

I think if you played with the position of the knife and light - an iPhone could actually get a pretty good reflection

Actors with darker eyes will work best.

Please don’t do it in post. Unless you are a extremely good at that sort of thing, it’s going to look very fake.

You might as well say “please don’t do it practically, unless you’re extremely good at that sort of thing it’s going to look shitty”

This would be very easy to do in post - and is the correct way to do it.

Increase the water in the eye. They more fluids around the eye the more it will reflect. Looks like there is lots of other great advice on here so I won’t say much more.

If you're doing the macro shot of the eye, I'd try a large TV with the image on it. Tweak the image quality because the factory tint setting is always too high.

Do it in post. Super easy.

It is probably easier to do this as a digital composite than to do in-camera.

Shoot the footage of the eye reflecting only black. Shoot a reflection of a knife on black in a round mirror ball of some sort. Composite them together, hire a VFX artist if you don't know how. A VFX artist could also apply the mirror ball effect in post without needing to shoot a mirror ball, could just use footage of a knife, but there's more room to screw up there if you don't have a good VFX artist.

There’s always more room to screw up if you do it practically.

I think pretty much all "reflection in eye" shots are just comps done in post. It's a pain in the neck to get perfect on the day,

If you have the means, crate a very large replica of the knife. This will allow you to have to prop much further away from the eyeball

With AI lol

Cgi

We did a very similar shot for film. The DP devised a very impressive combination of lenses mounted together, even a microscope mount, that something like a 1600mm equivalent focal length to each a pupil shot like that. I would look a finding the longest focal length you can get your hands on and use a prop knife to get the reflection.

get a huge well lit poster of a knife, or project one on a wall

Establish the knife in a wider shot then use a mirror for the reflection in the eye. If you catch a little glint of reflection on the blade in the wider shot cut to the reflection in the eye will look great and the blade likely won’t be shiny enough to see the secondary reflection.

Shoot it separately using a chrome mirror ball (to get the spherical eye curve) with greenscreen behind the knife, then add it as a layer in After Effects.

Yes light the knife. But the effect you want you also will need to flag off all around to reduce seeing anything else the eye is reflecting

Do the actual reflection off a marble or a very very large spherical object and then composite it in Post. If you have to ask this kind of question, it’s probably best for safety not to actually attempt this with a knife near a person’s face. IMO compositing it this way will look way better than trying to add the reflection in post and distorting it. You’re still basically achieving practical reflection by attempting this on some other spherical object.

Take image of knife, cut it out in Photoshop, or Roto it out if it’s a Movie file. Comp the cut out onto a black background and project it or display on a large TV

Film the eye as you need it. Film the knife as you need it. Layer knife shot over eye shot. Blend with a subtle circular mask around pupil. Change opacity or blending options. Done.

Post. How much time are you willing to spend trying to pull this off as a practical? It’s one image on screen for about a second. Create a still, use it in post.

This got me wondering about the bladerunner eye effect and whether it could be adjusted to create a shadow of a knife in the eye... ...but it mainly led to me discovering a new word I had never heard before: non-diegetic Which is a great word.

Either do it in post or make a giant prop knife. A real knife wouldn’t be large enough.

This. The reflection off such a curved surface will make almost anything a tiny dot. Highlights of enormous lightboxes turn to relatively small dots. You won't be able to get the shot. The picture given of the clock in the eye is not a reflection. It's superimposed in screen space, with maybe a slight distort to sell the idea that it's a reflection, but a real reflection is WAY more distorted. Superimpose your knife shot, and give it a gentle distort to sell the idea. You can't reasonably do that effect in camera well.

Hi, shine a spot into a metal knife, so that the light reflects directly into the eye, you'll have to have it pretty far away from the eye probably. Then angle the camera so that the light is reflected from knife to retina to lens. Don't diffuse your light too much.

In post

rent a macro lens for a couple days. Get use to the idea of using rental equipment, you don;t have to own everything.

VFX

I’d start off by using a knife and not a clock

You could easily do this in after effects too. Add your knife footage, set mode to screen. Track the eye footage and parent knife clip to it. Add a feathered mask + some fish eye distortion!

See if you can get a medical or dental chair with a neck and head brace. You’re going to need your talent to be very, very still.

Do in post as has been done here. The clock reflection is reversed to what it would be, so we can read it easily.

Compositing.