Eyes and light source capture

[FlyTVR]

Still playing with my new lighting kit.

I shot the unprocessed pic (below). My key light was a shoot through brolly and fill was a reflector. I've cropped the attached picture down to the eyes and you should be able to see the brolly in the shot.

So, as a newbie, I was told by my experienced mate that the brolly reflections are very distracting and should be removed using PSE.

Firstly, is he 100% right? Secondly, rather than use photoshop, if I wanted to avoid this in the future is it simply a case of moving the light source further back – or use a softbox? Thirdly, how easy would it be to remove the reflections using photoshop?

Cheers.

TeaVR

 

[Garry Edwards]

FWIW it's called a specular reflection - a reflection of the light source. People also call it a catchlight.

Whether it's distracting or not is a matter for you to decide. If you want to remove it then fine, but I think you'll find that you want to replace it with another one, as eyes without catchlights often look 'dead'.

If you use a different type of light source, for example a softbox, you'll get a different type of specular reflection. A square softbox will give you a square reflection that looks a bit like a window and a lot of people like this.

If you move it higher it will appear at the top of the eye, this will make the eyes look larger. If you move it very high it may disappear completely. If you move it further away it will appear smaller and brighter - but anything you do will affect the quality of the light and the effect it has on the shape of the face, so really you should like for the effect you want to achieve, not for the look of the specular reflection.

 

[FlyTVR]

FWIW it's called a specular reflection - a reflection of the light source. People also call it a catchlight.

Whether it's distracting or not is a matter for you to decide. If you want to remove it then fine, but I think you'll find that you want to replace it with another one, as eyes without catchlights often look 'dead'.

If you use a different type of light source, for example a softbox, you'll get a different type of specular reflection. A square softbox will give you a square reflection that looks a bit like a window and a lot of people like this.

If you move it higher it will appear at the top of the eye, this will make the eyes look larger. If you move it very high it may disappear completely. If you move it further away it will appear smaller and brighter - but anything you do will affect the quality of the light and the effect it has on the shape of the face, so really you should like for the effect you want to achieve, not for the look of the specular reflection.

Garry - you must live and breathe lighting!!!

What you say makes a lot of sense. For me, the quality of the image is paramount. The fact that my friend could zoom in and see the catchlight sort of speaks for itself.

Thanks again for the advice.

TeaVR