A facial recognition system may monitor a light source that causes a unique pattern of light to be projected on the subject during image capture. The lighting pattern may include intensity, color, source location, pattern, modulation, or combinations of these. The lighting pattern may also encode a signal used to further identify a location, time, or identity associated with the facial recognition process. In some embodiments the light source may be infrared or another frequency outside the visible spectrum but within the detection range of a sensor capturing the image.