Lighting Eyeglasses

Photographing people while wearing their eyeglasses can be quite difficult in the studio setting. Often the glass lenses reflect the lights and obscure the subjects eyes. This is especially true when the fill light is near the camera axis. Below are several suggestions for dealing with eyeglasses in the photography studio.

  1. Raise the camera – If the camera is raised until the light is no longer visible in the glasses it may solve the problem. This technique may not work for subjects who have longer faces or large noses since a high camera angle tends to accentuate those features. Bald men may also present a problem from a high camera angle.
  2. Raise the light – Another possible solution to eliminating reflections in glasses is to raise the lights to an angle which allows the reflections to bounce below the camera lens.
  3. Lower the subject – Lowering the subject has the same effect as raising the camera. Often asking the subject to sit rather than stand will do the trick.
  4. Tilt the eyeglasses – If changing the angle of the lighting or moving the subject is not possible for maintaining composition, tilting the head of the subject or actually tilting the glasses on the face may eliminate the problematic reflections. To do this, slightly lift up on the ear pads.

You can always ask the subject to remove the lenses of their glasses, but this is not always feasible. Some people squint or have difficulty seeing without their glasses and this does not come across well in the final image.

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