come into the light

For those of you that have said such NICE things about my pictures, I want to share the BEST tip I've ever learned about photography. It has to do with capturing light in your subject's eyes. (A huge thank you to an old friend ~ Jenn)! It makes perfect sense...but I never realized it. It has totally changed the way I take pictures.

If you keep up with my blog long enough, you will begin to see that if I'm shooting inside my house, there are only certain locations that will "work." Some rooms have such bad lighting, I never take pictures there. (Of course you can use flash, but that's a whole other animal, and I haven't even mastered it myself yet. I'm referring to working with natural light).

I took 2 pictures of Drew, minutes apart, same room, same chair, same everything. The ONLY difference...in the first pictures he is facing AWAY from the light, and in the next he is FACING the light. You want your subject FACING the light. (a window, in this case). Get them up close to the window. Have them look out, or at a 45 degree angle to the window.

Let's compare:
Facing AWAY from the window...



Now facing the light...


No, this is NOT a perfect picture. His left cheek (our right) looks a little overexposed. But don't forget...I'm still learning too. Look at the EYES ONLY. Scroll back and forth between the two pictures. You see the difference, right? Drew's eyes in the first picture are blah. In the 2nd picture, much more **sparkly.** Do you see it?

To go a step further, a slight photoshop "touch-up." The difference is very slight, as it should be. Here is a side-by-side view, so you can see it better:


Not a major change, just a slight little "pop" in the eyes.

Now look below for a comparison...AWAY from the light, and FACING the light:


There are other corrections that could be made, and the overexposure is making me crazy. But my point is comparing the EYES. Facing away from the light = blah eyes. Facing toward the light = **sparkly** eyes.

Another example:


Let's try that picture of Collin in black & white:


Hope this helps!!