Catch Light

The say that the eyes are the window to the soul.  I think of this statement everytime I manage to capture a really great CATCH LIGHT.  The bigger and brighter, the better in my opinion. I think one of the factors that make a portrait great is a catch light, especially in children.  There's some kind of magical quality that just makes the eyes really stand out.  I guess some of you may be wondering what I'm talking about so it would make sense for me to explain what a catch light is. 

Well, a catch light is the light that is reflected in the eyes.  It can be a really small white dot, like if you're using a flash, or it can be huge and have a wonderful shape, like when the sky is the reflection.  It pretty much depends on what your light source is.

Here are a few examples:

This first image is of one of my sweet nieces that I shot using the window as my light source (I also love window ligh,t but that's another blog post).  The catch light is in the shape of the window.  P.S. windows are also good for huge awesomely shaped catch lights. :)

This next example is a new born shot where the sky is reflecting in the eyes... very awesome...

This next image was shot using strobes with umbrellas on them.  The catch light is a little smaller, but still pretty nice.

So there you have it!  Its another one of my obsessions, and I will possibly post more pictures of awesome catch lights that I find!  Thanks for reading!

-kristy :)