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Archive 2013 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Matt Ward
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

I have a 10 year old daughter who is the typical blonde hair and blue eye young woman. I have never been able to capture the eye color in a digital pic. They are awesome ocean blue eyes and I want to capture that.

Surely all of the intense eye color is not a result of PS, is it? I have put it in that way, but I want the real color.

I am using a 7D, L lenses and Canon 580EX flashes.

Thanks Matt

May 28, 2013 at 08:51 AM

DigMeTX
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Always get lots of light in the eyes and expose properly. That is the main thing for me. If they are getting washed out then burn the irises a bit. Beyond that just hit them with some of the iris enhance in lightroom. That's all I ever do to eyes.

Light is key.

brad

May 28, 2013 at 11:04 AM

jefferies1
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

I almost never adjust eye color. The most I might do is a 5% burn which seems to remove a little shine for lack of a better word. Too much flash will lighten them and wash the eye color out and too little will leave them dull and flat.

Off camera flash is better. Avoid direct flash by using modifier or at least bounce off card or ceiling or wall.
Are you doing a custom WB. This helps a lot.

May 28, 2013 at 01:09 PM

Matt Ward
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

I am working with the speedlight off of the camera with an umbrella so as not to wash out her skin. I do use custom white balance set with and expodisk. WB is very close.

May 28, 2013 at 02:54 PM

Corojo
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

just run a wand in PS around the eyes - saturate or decrease brightness. Ed K

May 28, 2013 at 03:23 PM

DigMeTX
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Matt,

Show us an example photo you've taken with that setup in which you were disappointed in the eyes.

brad

May 28, 2013 at 03:40 PM

Matt Ward
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Will do, later this evening.

May 28, 2013 at 03:43 PM

cgardner
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

I routinely use an action in Photoshop I created which creates screen, multiply and soft light adjustment layers to make selective localized saturation and contrast edits. See this tutorial for details: http://photo.nova.org/AdjustmentLayers/

I'll often use the multiply and soft light layers to add more saturation and contrast to the irises and pupils of eyes and the screen layer to lighten the sclera which is typically darker and a bit bluer than our idealized image of what a perfect eye looks like.

May 28, 2013 at 08:11 PM

Matt Ward
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Here is a sample, shot in slight overcast with a single 580EX and ST-2E triggering with -3 stops off the flash.

May 28, 2013 at 08:13 PM

paregorike
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Why don't you try natural light? with enough light to start with?

May 28, 2013 at 08:26 PM

markymarc
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

To get light into the eyes you may also need to use a reflector in addition to the off camera light. A simple white foamboard can often do the trick. The off camera light will bounce off that foamboard and into the eyes. You can also lay the foamboard or reflector on the ground and bounce a second strobe down so it reflects up acting as a large light source.

Many folks also post process the eyes. A bit of burn or screen layer will enhance the eyes. Youtube is your friend for that. Less is more. Ironically one has to over do it a few times to understand that

May 28, 2013 at 08:36 PM

Matt Ward
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

I have had many problems with her skin becoming almost translucent and very unsaturated and what I would consider normal exposure. My other daughter has almost a permanent tan which makes her much easier to photograph.

My hope was to lower the ambient exposure and then gently fill my daughter with a flash into an umbrella with very soft light. I usually work with natural light, not flash but still have a hard time with her.

I am the first to admit, when photographing people, I am a rookie.

May 28, 2013 at 09:17 PM

george malamis
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

How far away is the umbrella? Try moving it in as close as you can with it not entering the frame and take a close up of her face. Play with the height of the flash and the angle of it from side light (90 degrees) to camera position (0 degrees).

May 29, 2013 at 05:23 AM

cgardner
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Part of the problem in the shot you posted was that the natural light was being shaded by the brow BEFORE flash was added. It's something many overlook when using flash in open shade or backlight.

It's the result of the skylight also having a "key vector" which comes down at an angle higher than 45° all the time because that's where the brightest reflect of sun off atmosphere is. The eyes get the sideways "fill" vectors of the skylight, but the brow shades the more dominant "key" vector.

The definition of a "key" light is a source which creates a visible shadow over the "fill". Skylight / Backlight / Open Shade has "key" and "fill" vectors which create a subtle low ratio pattern. Regardless of how much flash you add on top of shaded eyes they will always wind up darker than normal compared to the correctly exposed cheeks, nose and forehead which the "key" vector of the skylight reaches.

The solution is simple. Bring along a step-stool or find some other higher POV for the camera and have the subject look up to get the skylight past the brow and into the orbits. The camera - face planes remains parallel / / so there is no distortion of the face. The head will appear over the torso more with the torso slightly foreshorten when shooting from around 8ft. which is a good distance to avoid near/far distortion of the nose vs. ears.

Try it and compare the difference and you'll see "brighter eyes" in the shot where she looks up and gets the "key" vector of the skylight in them.

FWIW the same thing happens indoors when using flash in strong ambient light from ceiling fixtures. I avoid the problem indoor by finding a chair and standing on it. People turn and look up to see what I'm doing on a chair and I capture well lit faces looking directly at the camera.

The other part of the problem with dark brown eyes is the limited sensor range. It can't handle the contrast of a single source, be it the sun or a single flash. The solution there is to use key and fill flashes outdoors just as you would indoors with the fill flash (overlapping ambient) set to reveal detail in the shadows, and the "key" flash set at the same angle the natural "key" vector is modeling the face.

I describe this in my flash tutorials. See: http://photo.nova.org/OutdoorLighting/ The sun is used as "hair" light with "key" provided by a big source (sky) and smaller source (flash) lined up together. Fill is provided by the sky (wrap around) and from a flash centered at chin level to the subject.

May 29, 2013 at 07:46 AM

amacal1
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Despite the fact that it's a cat, do those same principles apply to this photo since the cat is looking into the chandelier?

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3815/8806542055_757cf5632e_b.jpg

Also,

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1336/5165371301_87e834c8b8_b.jpg

May 29, 2013 at 09:57 AM

BrianO
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Matt Ward wrote:
I have a 10 year old daughter who is the typical blonde hair and blue eye young woman. I have never been able to capture the eye color in a digital pic. They are awesome ocean blue eyes and I want to capture that. ...Surely all of the intense eye color is not a result of PS, is it? I have put it in that way, but I want the real color.

Most often when you see "cover girls" and other models with intense eye color, it was made using a combination of artificial lighting and post processing.

Because the eyes are set back from other facial features they are, as Chuck pointed out, often partially shaded from the natural light and even from most added light if the latter is set up to reveal facial modeling. Additionally, because the eyes are "wet" or "glass-like" compared to the skin, more of the light striking them from an angle will reflect away from the camera than light reflecting off the more diffuse skin surfaces.

There are many ways of lighting the eyes, including specially made reflectors like the Eyelighter, use of snooted strobes, etc., but even the best lighting setups often need to be helped along in post processing by local addition of saturation, brightness, contrast, and sharpening to really bring out the strong impression that one gets when seeing the subject "live."

To address just the lighting part, though, try using some added fill light that's close to the lens axis so that you have more direct reflection from the eyes into the lens. Changing the angle of incidence can change the angle of reflection from the eyes without unduly changing the exposure of the skin. (Do watch for hot spots from oily skin, sweat, etc., though.)

If you watch any behind-the-scenes shows of model shoots or headshot sessions you'll often see this method being used, with the subject's face surrounded by lights on all sides. Some of Peter Hurley's YouTube vidoes show this especially well.

If you're not familiar with Peter Hurley, here's a 2-hour lecture from him, hosted by B&H:

May 29, 2013 at 03:08 PM

BigIronCruiser
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Here are a couple of examples along the lines of what cgardner was saying. In the first image, the model's eye's are in shadow because she's looking straight ahead. In the 2nd image, her eye's are pointing more toward the light source.

Example 1

Example 2

May 29, 2013 at 05:54 PM

erichard
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

Make sure you shoot Raw as you'll be able to pull more information (color, detail, shades, etc.) out of those eyes in post. Make sure to expose to the right, meaning get the histogram abutting the right side without going over the 254-255 limit much if at all (ie. no clipping unless you intend that). That way you'll have maxed out your dynamic range and can pull (burn) some light into those dark eyes you have in the photo above. There'd be no way to lighten them up from the jpg presented, but maybe in a well exposed raw photo you could. Perhaps you are shooting RAW, but I thought I'd mention it, since generally I find I can lighten the eyes in Raw.

May 29, 2013 at 10:48 PM

Bruce Sawle
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · How to retain intense eye color in a photo?

You need to get the light into their eye sockets. A flash creates a tiny lightsource compared to the sun. Shoot when the sun is low late in the day or early in the day. You can also use a reflector to help reflect light into those sockets. Here is one where I placed a reflector low to kick some light back into her face. I also brightened the overall images.

_BS87816_4319_24 by Bruce Sawle, on Flickr

May 29, 2013 at 11:19 PM


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