Eyes

Can some one tell me if there are techniques to make eyes pop? I see some photographers and it never fails..eyes are popping everywhere. How is it done? Lighting..post processing? Am I totally missing something here?

Hi Kat, I'm somewhat of a newbie, but this is what I've learnt...

Eyes should be sharp
Play with lighting to create a catchlight in the eyes. Different people like different placements of the catchlights, an octagonal soft box is said to produce pleasing catchlights.


Enhance the eyes and catch lights in post production by deepening colour and/or dodging.

Theory is one thing, but putting it all into practice is another...I'm sure someone with more experience can offer more help. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by kat

How is it done? Lighting..post processing?

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Yes and Yes.

And most of your portraits have great eyes Kat!

I came across this last night and is mostly focused creating a look through photoshop, but it does talk a little about making the eyes pop by adding a top later, painting out the eyes, and sharpening/modifying the base layer. On the whole the technique looks interesting.

Flickr: Discussing Creating "Dreamy" Portraits in Technique

thanks for the site link..that is a great photo he did up there..but for someone who hasn't much photoshop experience..I had no clue what some of the things he did!! lol

I don't know what it is lately. I see more and more eyes that are great. And I know it's to with catch lights but I think it's the whole eye..lol. Seems everyones eyes are now that great glowy, tiger looking eyes (if you know what I mean) and I have no clue how they do it.

Although the more searching I do..the more I realize that there are many portraits out there that don't have the originally shot eye look/color/catch light in them.

Thanks MA, just wanting to get that "OMG" look at those eyes out of my photos that I get when I see most of the people I follow..

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Originally Posted by kat

Thanks MA, just wanting to get that "OMG" look at those eyes out of my photos that I get when I see most of the people I follow..

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Many of yours do already.

I use photoshop ... duplicate the layer ... process the lower layers eyes to where I want them ... then using a layer mask I blend the brighter eyes through.

Of course you could just do this ...

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...ntelle-ani.gif

Bwahahahaha! Love it! :) I have to get better at this layer stuff!

:) Here's a little more serious effort ... using the layers technique I described above ...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3612/...c814bdb5_o.jpg

One of the keys is indeed lighting and half the secret is actually seeing the light, light the eyes instead of hoping it does. So....practice setting up 1 light and WATCH as the eye fills with the light you use. Using photoshop to do this makes me cringe as the photographer is not learning about lighting and can spend LOADS of time doing PP picture after picture...instead of spending an afternoon learning about lighting.

Then in post processing, a little dodging (lightening) can help an already well lit eye a lot.

Although you can add colour and PP to the eyes, my personal preference is to avoid it unless you are going for a special effect.
Hope that helps - Marko