Lambs

[Frazer Family]

I took a bunch of photos recently of our three little orphans: Raspberry, Strawberry, and Blueberry. In all my photos I seem to have trouble getting a catch light, but the days I shot were cloudy. How do you get a catch light in the eye on a cloudy day?

Also, any ideas about post-processing these photos?

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[David Frazer]

One way of thinking about catchlights is to imagine that the eye as a spherical mirror. The catchlight is the reflection of the brightest thing reflected. You need to position the brightest light in such a place that it will reflect off the eye and back into the camera.

On the same note, the apparent size of the light has a big impact. I made a quick diagram – hopefully it will help someone.

Even on a cloudy day outdoors the sky will probably be the brightest object as well as the largest one. In the case of 20170524_ELF_4424.jpg (which is a really nice picture, by the way!) there is a catchlight, it’s just that the horizon is about 3/4 of the way up the eye and most of the sky is being blocked by the lamb’s eyelashes/eyebrow.

Here is a 1:1 crop illustrating what I mean:

I hope this helps…

• This reply was modified 54 years, 9 months ago by .

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[Frazer Family]

Ah! That is really helpful! So, if I understand correctly, positioning myself higher up in the above case and shooting downward into the lamb’s eye would have brought the catch light lower in the eye since that would lower the reflected horizon? Also, looking at your diagram, would having the light source at either a very obtuse or very acute angle as compared to the camera also produce a larger catch light?

So, practically, to get the catch light on a cloudy day, I need to make sure that the animal is facing the open, cloudy sky and then position myself so that I can get the reflection of that in the eye. I’m going to have to think about that math… Maybe I should set up some mirrors to experiment! Wait! Dew droplets on the grass would probably do the same thing, right?

[David Frazer]

Actually, it is the opposite – remember it is a mirror so the lower you get the more “up” you see in the mirror. I would have to think about the size a bit more.

Practically speaking, you’ve got it! And the surface of water droplets work the same way, as do glossy balls and marbles. I would suggest getting into a dark room with one light, a large glossy ball and your camera and experiment with different positions of the light. Keep it simple at first: get the ball filling the frame and only move the light.

[James Staddon]

Wow, that is fantastic @dfrazer! Thank you for the diagram. Things make so much more sense when it’s visual vs being typed out! Looking forward to giving a few more ideas during the webinar today, https://www.lenspiration.com/photo-critique-with-lenspiration-may-30/

[Frazer Family]

Actually, it is the opposite – remember it is a mirror so the lower you get the more “up” you see in the mirror.

Of course! Actually, last night I originally wrote, “So if I were lying flat on the ground looking up into the lamb’s eyes, I would see the catch light more.” And then I reflected again (a little too hard, I guess) and thought it must be the opposite. But now that it isn’t late at night ( 🙂 ) that makes sense.

Neat idea about experimenting with a ball! I’ll have to try that… when I have time…

[James Staddon]

And in case you’re ever wanting to review what we talked about these shots on the Photo Critique Webinar, you can watch it below, starting at around minute 44:00.
 
https://www.lenspiration.com/video/webinar053017/

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