Spotlight on catchlights and the winners of the RAK!

Hey everyone, its Laura the Pest here! I am so excited that Ramona is back in action designing and all us Pests are together again.. with some new friends!

I'm going to provide a photography tip today. First a little history on my photography knowledge. My son, Rett, was born almost 2 years ago and I owned a p&s (point and shoot) camera. I was always interested in photography but after taking him to a few commercial picture places, they just weren't capturing him the way I wanted them to. So my wonderful husband allowed me to buy a 'nice' camera. I own a Canon Rebel Xti now and really need to upgrade. I do a little photography for others but mostly just enjoy taking pictures of my family and friends.

Today's tip is on catch lights. What are they and how do they add to your photography? Catch lights are the little bursts of light that appear in your eyes from the sun's (or other light source) reflection. They add life to your subject's eyes. The first thing a person looks at when the subject is a person is the eyes.

Here is an example of good catch lights:



The small white specs that show up around the black part of the eye are your catch lights. You can click on the picture to see it larger to see the effect a little better. Since this was taken in my studio and the light was coming from a window, my catch light is a box shape. Different light sources will change the shape of your catch light and moving your light source or subject will move the catch light around the pupil.

This is an example of bad catch lights, which really means you just don't have catch lights.


This photo was taken outside so the lack of catch lights isn't a result of low lighting. It is just a lack of watching for catch lights and moving my subject so that the light reflected in the eyes.

How to improve YOUR catch lights: watch for them! Practice capturing catch lights and moving the placement in your childrens eyes to decide what you prefer. There is no right or wrong catch light besides a lack of one!

And our big RAK announcement! I'd like to say congrats to Angie (AZK) who won the Sail Away bundle and tjscrap who won the grab bag! Ramona will be sending you your coupons very soon!