Portraits with glasses ???'s

[sjconner]

I work at a residential program/school for at risk teenagers. Graduation is coming next month and we are going to be taking cap and gown pictures. We normally take them outside in the afternoon (not the best time but only time/location available). I am going to ensure that reflectors are used to help fill some of the shadows. We don't have any pp software so these need to be good from the beginning. In the past, we have done pretty well but the kids with glasses are really hard to make look good. We do not have access to frames without lenses. Any suggestions?!

Thanks a million,
Susan

 

[KmH]

It's all about the "family of angles." Get, read, and understand the book - Light: Science and Magic
An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Hunter, Biver, Faqua

 

[Derrel]

One tip that works reasonably well is to set the main light a bit higher than normal. A second tip is that the eyeglass wearer can tilt their lenses downward a few degrees by lifting up the eyeglass temple-piece right about where it goes over their ears...it is very hard to notice, and it will not stand out like a sore thumb, so if you personally instruct eyeglass wearers to just lift the eyeglass temple piece upward about 3/8 of an inch, right over the ear area right before their photo is snapped, the chance of getting a bad reflection goes down quite a bit.

Luckily, today, eyeglasses tend toward fairly small lenses, which are also multi-coated and tend to be less reflective than older lenses; back in the late 80's and early 1990's before coated eyeglass lenses and back in the era of the Elton John or Nelson C. Reilly sized eyeglasses, reflections were a HUGE problem; lenses were very,very large--maybe 4 times the area of today's typical Geeky-Nerdy frames and lenses!!!

Remember, it's like billiards: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

 

[D-B-J]

One tip that works reasonably well is to set the main light a bit higher than normal. A second tip is that the eyeglass wearer can tilt their lenses downward a few degrees by lifting up the eyeglass temple-piece right about where it goes over their ears...it is very hard to notice, and it will not stand out like a sore thumb, so if you personally instruct eyeglass wearers to just lift the eyeglass temple piece upward about 3/8 of an inch, right over the ear area right before their photo is snapped, the chance of getting a bad reflection goes down quite a bit.

Luckily, today, eyeglasses tend toward fairly small lenses, which are also multi-coated and tend to be less reflective than older lenses; back in the late 80's and early 1990's before coated eyeglass lenses and back in the era of the Elton John or Nelson C. Reilly sized eyeglasses, reflections were a HUGE problem; lenses were very,very large--maybe 4 times the area of today's typical Geeky-Nerdy frames and lenses!!!

Remember, it's like billiards: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

+1

 

[Derrel]

ABove when I wrote Nelson C. Reilly, I was thinking of course of Charles Nelson Riley, the famous game show actor and comedian.

Here's a good example of the Charles Nelson Riley-sized eyeglasses that were his trademark--take a look at THOSE eyeglasses, and think about the words "reflection control"! Hah!

Google Image Result for http://www.foxnews.com/images/286666/0_61_reilly_charles_nelson.jpg

http://www.foxnews.com/images/286666/0_61_reilly_charles_nelson.jpg

Successful Glasses Wearing Celebrities, Elton John, Buddy Holly | SelectSpecs Glasses Blog

 

[farmerj]

The Rules Of Good Portraiture