The human iris supports contact less data acquisition and can be imaged covertly. These factors give raise to the possibility of performing biometric recognition procedure with-out subjects’ knowledge and in uncontrolled data acquisition scenarios. The feasibility of this type of recognition has been receiving increasing attention, as is of particular interest in visual surveillance, computer forensics, threat assessment, and other security areas. In this paper we stress the role played by the spectrum of the visible light used in the acquisition process and assess the discriminating iris patterns that are likely to be acquired according to three factors: type of illuminant, it’s luminance, and levels of iris pigmentation. Our goal is to perceive and quantify the conditions that appear to enable the biometric recognition process with enough confidence.