Quote - Yes, the cylinder is a mesh light but everything in the scene is so dim. The image is heavily underexposed and the subject is squinting so there is no chance to see anything in those eyes. If you look at the arm you can see that it's completely flat, with no definition. That is also the effect of the lighting. Lighting cannot be done as if you are photographing a real life scene. The camera does not see like the human eye, in fact it sees less than half. So you need to complement the scene. Right now everything falls in darkness with no definition. You might consider more light and to adjust the exposure to brighten the image at least a stop.

Add some lights and have the lightsaber as a prop, not a light. Once you stop counting on the lightsaber as a source of light you will be able to focus on the lighting proper.

Light is reflected at an angle that is equal and oposite to the angle of incidence. So make sure that the mesh light is angled in a way to be caught by the camera. If you make it large enough and positioned slightly to camera-right it should work. Do some test renders at low res, it should not take more than a couple of minutes to see if the reflection appears. 

Once you have the light in position you can let the render cook for longer.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, this does help alot. 

 I always seem to get stuck in a trap- thinking of what I want to see and not thinking of what the camera sees.

cheers,