I love portraiture and prefer not to edit afterwards (mainly because I don't have time to learn photoshop) but that seems to be the done thing, right? Anyway, even when the eyes are the focal point in my pics they don't dazzle. is there something easy to make that happen? This possibly sounds like a silly question but i am a newby so please forgive me!
Do you have an example? Usually you need a catch light (the bright white highlight you see on the eye) in the eyes to make them sparkle. Depending on your light source, you may just have dark round pupils and an iris, which don't dazzle. Usually using a flash of some sort or getting the ambient light source in the right direction to bounce into the camera will do the trick.
I'm still really learning a lot, but when I do get those great eye shots (and after following my crazy-happy dance) I try to think what I did differently. I think exposure has something to do with it...make sure there's enough light. Make sure you aren't rushing through the picture. I think I tend to move my camera really fast after it's taken.
Even if they aren't SUPER crisp, you can work on getting "catchlights" in the eyes - those ALWAYS help. If you don't know, that's the little white "dot" (or more often square) in the eyes from the light source. A lot of people use window light for this.) Those seem to make eyes sparkle more.
"Easy"??? I don't know about that - I'll definitely be following to find out what other people offer. I'm sure there will be a lot of "practice, practice, practice!" :) Good luck!
@ Jeremy, i was on here yesterday and looking at a watermark tutorial, i can't find it now, but Jinx photos or jinx images or something like that was the poster, he was giving a watermark tute and he had a gorgeous photo of a girl with amazing eyes and that's what made me ask the question.
So you can actually get amazing eyes them without editing? I guess that was kind of my question too, so many people edit that you never know if it's a real photo or not.
I'm just trying to learn and am really just a beginner!
@sundy What has been said is correct - you need to get light into the eyes. But there is certainly more you can do in editing, and just about every good portrait photographer I know pays special attention to the eyes. I think the way I edit them is possibly a bit of a signature of my work - I try to not over-edit them, but I do work hard on making them sparkle. I'll be uploading a tutorial on eye editing today if I get time, or otherwise tomorrow. Anyway, the key is local contrast. The eyes (that is, the viewer's eyes) are drawn to the part of the image with the highest contrast, so when you want viewers to be drawn to the eyes in a portrait, you need to ensure the eyes have the most local contrast. So, you need to get light into the eyes when you take the shot, you want to avoid distracting backgrounds, and you want to increase the contrast (sharpening is contrast, by the way) of the eyes more than anywhere else in the image. That's pretty much it, in my opinion. :)
As others have stated you need light in the eyes to make them sparkle. I am a natural light photographer and us my speedlight as little as possible. So I prefer natural sunlight to get this effect. Start with having your subject stand in the shade and turn them until you can see the light in their eyes. If you can see it, your camera can see it. Make sure to take a mental note of where the sun is in relation to them, you, the camera. And before long you will know the best positions to catch the light.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_light
I'm still really learning a lot, but when I do get those great eye shots (and after following my crazy-happy dance) I try to think what I did differently. I think exposure has something to do with it...make sure there's enough light. Make sure you aren't rushing through the picture. I think I tend to move my camera really fast after it's taken.
Even if they aren't SUPER crisp, you can work on getting "catchlights" in the eyes - those ALWAYS help. If you don't know, that's the little white "dot" (or more often square) in the eyes from the light source. A lot of people use window light for this.) Those seem to make eyes sparkle more.
"Easy"??? I don't know about that - I'll definitely be following to find out what other people offer. I'm sure there will be a lot of "practice, practice, practice!" :) Good luck!
So you can actually get amazing eyes them without editing? I guess that was kind of my question too, so many people edit that you never know if it's a real photo or not.
I'm just trying to learn and am really just a beginner!
(samples from when I was testing if a 500mm on a crop sensor was a viable portrait lens)