Portraits with eye glasses

[Thomas Bertilsson]

How do you photograph someone so that the big reflection of your lighting doesn't occur on the eyeglass lenses?
This is a self portrait I made last night to test. Sorry if it isn't sharp all over, it wasn't easy with a 150mm lens and a self timer to get it right.
Can this be done?

Thankful for advice,

- Thomas

 

[noblebeast]

You need to tilt the lens of the eyeglasses down a tiny bit. I usually lift the temple piece off the ear by a quarter inch or so - it doesn't take much in most posing situations.

Joe

 

[JBrunner]

How do you photograph someone so that the big reflection of your lighting doesn't occur on the eyeglass lenses?
This is a self portrait I made last night to test. Sorry if it isn't sharp all over, it wasn't easy with a 150mm lens and a self timer to get it right.
Can this be done?

Thankful for advice,

- Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Good question, something that comes up in my regular job all the time. The easiest way is to get them to remove their glasses!!! If that can't or doesn't want to be done, then your lighting options become a bit more restrained, but not completely limited. A reflection always is sent from the exact opposite angle it arrives from, so you need to move the refection away from the camera. In the case of your portrait, raising the light would be the first option I would choose. Your up tilted gaze in this example exacerbates the situation, so I might say, "put your chin down just a bit" Having them move the glasses an un-obvious amount down can help as well. If it was still there a little bit, I might raise the camera a bit, and see if that did it. If the subject will be posing direct to the lens, raising the camera will be a moot exercise. What we are trying to do is move the reflection to below the lens. The more round an object is, the more difficult it is to light without a hot spot, esp when using a point source. Another method is to make the "reflection" larger than the object, by increasing the physical size of the source. This doesn't eliminate reflections, but it does make them big and sexy, like what you see in an auto advert. A large right angle source and a pola would be a another way to approach the eyeglass thing, I suppose, but moving the camera and light until you find a pleasing compromise is the most common method.

 

[Jim Noel]

All that is necessary is to remember one of the earliest things learned in geometry - The angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence..

Move the light and/or angle the head (glasses) so that the reflection moves out of the image.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice. Hopefully I can practice this soon.
I'll have to stick with the face angles, camera height, and height of the lights. The tripods I put lights on are not very flexible, and I could use for them to extend higher. I'll work on that.
- Thomas

 

[Photo Engineer]

Hey, you forgot one thing.

Every major portrait photographer that I've worked with kept boxes of glass frames with no glass. I've worn them myself for many photos. That is the easiest solution and is not expensive as a lot of frames go for salvage.

PE

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

That's a really good idea, except I'm not really a portrait photographer... I just did this as a charity to a local school. There was a silent auction where people could bid on things donated to benefit the school. I donated a portrait session. Turned out the whole family wears eye glasses... We'll see how I did first. Then we'll know if I have to re-shoot or not.
- Thomas

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, if I were going to do portraits for any reason, I would go to the local optometrist and ask them for some of their discarded frames without lenses.

PE

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

When I think of it, I am going there to have my own goggles checked out in January. See if I can take some old ones off their hands. Thanks again,

- Thomas

 

[bill schwab]

Thomas,

Can't add anything other than it is nice to put a face with your posts and photographs. Now I'll recognize you when we meet.

Bill

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Looking forward to it, Bill.

- Thomas

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Personally, as a portrait photographer, I want people to look as much as possible like they do every day. That means I won't ask a person who is dependent on glasses to remove them, and I won't ask them to put on frames that aren't their own. I'm very (very) vision impaired, and I personally wouldn't be comfortable with either of those options. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done; I'm just saying it would make me uncomfortable from both sides of the lens.

I manage the reflection problem as has already been mentioned, by just angling the glasses slightly downward. I also encourage my subjects to look at each other rather than straight at the camera and/or the light source, which greatly minimizes the issue. I don't worry about very slight reflections, as that's part of everyday life (and are quite easy to spot out if necessary). Big reflections are an issue, particularly when they cover a significant portion of the eye, so I'm careful to prevent those.

- CJ

 

[blaze-on]

Use digital..


What's been suggested works fine, but be sure to fire some pops off and watch the glasses carefully to see if you got it right. Remind the subject to not change angle of head, and many who wear glasses have a habit of subconsciously using a finger to slide the glasses up or fidget.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

As others have said, tilt the head down. Doesn't have to be a lot, just a little will usually do it.

 

[mabman]

It's also going to depend on what kind of coating(s) - if any - are on the lenses of the subject's glasses. I've worn glasses since I was 2.5, and as a kid I always had "anti-glare" coatings on the lenses (which did reduce glare a bit, not sure if it was really worth it, though). Every single picture day in school, the photographer would tell me to put my chin down, and every single resulting picture would have large purple anti-glare-coating-coloured glare spots in the lenses, sometimes obscuring my eyes.

(I really have no suggestion on how to deal with it, no school photographer that I can recall ever got it right - it was largely varying degrees of frustrating I was told by a few of them over the years that the level of strobe glare was "unusual".)

 

[Dave Wooten]

The correct answer has been posted. Angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. If the light is striking the glasses from a 45 degree angle, it will leave the glasses at a 45 degree angle. If your film plane is on the receiving end of that reflected path, you will get the reflective glare leaving the glasses.

This can be readily seen through the lens before you take the shot, or with the naked eye viewing from behind the camera.

Using the glasses as a "prop" , the subject holding them in various poses can give a contemplative mood to a portrait, or looking over the glasses, a humorous or questionable air, and adds to the personality character of the subject.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thanks again everybody, that really is a lot of good information. I was trying to spot through the viewfinder of the camera which way I could direct their view to cut most of the glare. We'll see how I do. It's good practice if nothing else. It was one of the first times ever for me to use artificial lighting. If I'm not too ashamed of the results, I'll post a scan or two here when the prints are done.

- Thomas

 

[mark]

My mom sent the wife and I to the portrait photog a year after the wedding. The guy took our glasses, removed the lenses and gave them back to us. After the sitting he put the lenses back in. You can't tell there are no lenses and there was no issue with tilting the lenses down which looks funny IMO.

 

[polaski]

I prefer repositioning the glasses on the face. These days, tilting my head forward sort of accentuates the double chin.

 

[panastasia]

All that is necessary is to remember one of the earliest things learned in geometry - The angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence..

Move the light and/or angle the head (glasses) so that the reflection moves out of the image.

I wish it was that simple but eyeglass lenses are not flat planes, there will always be some part of the lens reflecting the light source back toward the camera. Placement of the lighting has limits also before the highlights and shadows appear incorrect, or undesirable.