First go at portrait shots (school pic style).

[Manfred M]

I normally suggest NOT shooting with glasses because of the issues that they can cause.

Image of Harold (first image). There are two effects of wearing the glasses:

1. A harsh shadow from the glasses temple onto the camera right eye. There is also a noticeable shadow in the camera left eye; and

2. Magnification of Harold's eyes.

Image of Henry (second shot)

You have already identified the reflection in the glasses. What you have not mentioned is how dark his eyes are in the image.


I won't get into any other comments at this point, but I think your images would have been better if they had been done without glasses.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Paul,

I appreciate that if these are supposed to be pictures (reminders, in the future) of how your lads looked daily when they were at school, taking off the glasses really isn't an option.

The simple observation/conclusion I draw when viewing these is that you have concentrated so much on avoiding reflections, everything else you know about portrait lighting has 'gone out the window' and as a result, we have seriously dark eye sockets and lighting that is too contrasty and way off to the side.

I don't have enough experience to advise successful shooting with such glasses myself, but wonder if, to avoid what you seem to have done, it might be wise to position the lights and pose the subjects without their glasses, then have them put on by your wife or an assistant (the other brother even) at the last moment, then fiddle with the vertical angle of the glasses themselves (only?) to minimise reflections.

Unfortunately Henry's glasses, with their thick frames, don't help getting light to the eyes unless it is coming from above the camera and almost on axis, likely to give the most reflections back to camera.

In the extreme, I wonder if it is possible to remove the lenses from the frames (temporarily) for the photoshoot?

I'm just thinking out loud here, there may be better advice from others.

HTH, Dave

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I feel I have to rebut Manfred's thoughts on this shooting without glasses.

My late father-in-law was once on a national magazine cover. The photographer had him remove his glasses for the cover shot.
Everyone said 'What the hell? He NEVER takes his glasses off'. It's true, he never took his glasses off.

So, if you're going to shoot kids that wear glasses, I say don't make them take them off. Work out the lighting so the reflections are minimal and go from there.

[Manfred M]

I feel I have to rebut Manfred's thoughts on this shooting without glasses.

My late father-in-law was once on a national magazine cover. The photographer had him remove his glasses for the cover shot.
Everyone said 'What the hell? He NEVER takes his glasses off'. It's true, he never took his glasses off.

So, if you're going to shoot kids that wear glasses, I say don't make them take them off. Work out the lighting so the reflections are minimal and go from there.

Alan - I know a local portrait photographer who has a set of small screwdrivers for use with clients like your late father-in-law. He will remove the lenses from the glasses to eliminate most of the issues related to the lenses in glasses.

With someone like Paul, who is just getting into studio lighting, I think my advice is a bit easier to follow at this point in his learning curve. I agree with Dave; so much effort is going into eliminating the reflections from the glasses, the lighting is not working for the portrait. Even if he fixes the lighting issues, the optical impact of a set of lenses is going to impact the image.