Scot Nery's Blog

The Catch Light

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scot

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The most appealing lighting does two things.

  1. It’s clear what is being depicted
  2. The subject is in it’s ultimate state

For a portrait or a zoom call, that means 1?? we can tell what the person’s face looks like and 2?? that person is healthy and attractive.

When a light source is reflected in the eye like a mirror, it shows (clearly) that the person has wet eyes (healthy).

This reflection is called the “catch light.”

no catchlight. It’s unclear whether the eye has the same texture as the skin. can make the eyeball look flat
one small light source can make the eye look beady and dry. it’s still unclear what is happening in the photo
two small light sources can make the eye look beady or pointy… and maybe a little dry still
big lightsource shows roundness of the eye and gets a little glimmer on the edges of the eye.
a really big light source can be beautiful. we can get this from my garage portraits
using lots of smaller sources, but clustered together can be descriptive and wet

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