Okay yeah let’s talk about it. It’s because we literally don’t use those lights anymore to light anything, let alone…

Okay yeah let’s talk about it. It’s because we literally don’t use those lights anymore to light anything, let alone women. And also because modern actresses don’t want to be lit this way. 🧵

bebe@huppertspiano · Jun 2, 2025

there’s something about the way a black and white movies lights people’s eyes that is so stunning

So back in the days of old, we only had 4 types of lights. 1. The sun 2. Candles 3. Light bulbs 4. Arc lights (mostly outdoors - purple) 5. Mole Richardson tungsten lights (studio use - red)

Those last two types of lights were HEAVY, SUPER HOT - and most importantly for this conversation - HARD. That means they were a single point source (like the sun is a single point source). Single sources with no diffusion create HARD SHADOWS.

How do I know these actresses were lit with hard, single-source lights? It’s all in the shadows. Check how harsh these shadow lines are - they cut straight across. They’re not feathered, not diffused. This angle only works if the actress is facing directly into the light.

I also know that this is a point source because of the shape of the reflection in the eyes. It is a round reflection. Which means she was lit with a light that had a round output. Normally diffusions are square, and you’ll see a square reflection as a result.

Normally hard lights are not preferable for actresses because they catch each pore and line with a mini-shadow. But these closeups are soft! How? Literally putting a “softening” filter on the lens. Sometimes that’s literally wrapping a stocking around the lens.

So if HARD LIGHT + SOFT LENS FILTER achieves this sparkling eyes effect, why not use it now? Because those super heavy “softening filters” are now associated with the “old school” look. And without the filter, a hard light is unflattering. So we mostly use soft lights now.

And whether that’s a large LED panel (green) with a square of diffusion material in front of it (blue) or a single-source light with a softbox attached to it (yellow), you’re never going to get eye lights that are THAT sparkly because they are reflecting soft sources.

I once TRIED to light a big movie star with a hard light. Thought I could get away with it b/c she was young (no wrinkles, no blemishes, nothing for the hard light to hit upon) and her glam team made such a stink about her pores being visible that I had to swap to a soft light.

So the other part of this is that there are SEVERAL catch-lights in the eye reflections. On the left there are 2, on the right - 4. The more lights reflected, the sparkler the eyes. The main (key light - orange) also lights the face. The others are placed JUST for the reflection.

This means that to light the face, they only really needed one light. The others were placed just for sparkle. These days we shoot so fast and schedules are so tight, we are rarely are given the time to set up THREE ENTIRE LIGHTS that are just playing as bonus catch-lights.

Another huge factor is that we now shoot almost everything on digital (cheaper), and at high resolutions. So every pore is visible (and unflattering under hard light). Back in the day, not only was the resolution much lower, but the film grain hid a lot of the skin texture.

Stella ✡︎ ⚢@fnkylilthespian · Jun 5, 2025

Next time you watch a romance - take a look at the soft shadows. It’s not that the actresses chose the lighting. It is that they don’t want to look unflattering, obviously. So we do everything in our power to soften the lights hitting their faces, especially in romantic movies.