Help for getting eye color !

[bobrock111565]

I've been playing around with lighting for portraits and notice on this test shot of myself that I'm completely losing the eye color. My eyes are not that bright (sort of a grayish blue), but nonetheless the color is completely lost and they appear essentially black. What should I do....add another fill light just for the eyes? With a snoot perhaps? And from what angle?

My lighting for this now is speedlite#1 w/umbrella at 1/4 power slightly behind me (subject) and off camera left, speedlite#2 w/umbrella 1/4 power immediately right of camera and 45 deg from me, and speedlite#3 at 1/8 power with index card & ceiling bounce just slightly left of camera facing me.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I want to do a portrait of my niece that has lovely rich brown eyes and want to make sure I capture her eye color.

Thanks,
Bob

http://www.bobrock.com/Images/Bob005.jpg

[Kristy]

Maybe bring your main light down a little lower so more of the lights hits the eyes... Does that make sense?

[bobrock111565]

Kristy,
Of course! Duhhh! Right now they are all head high or slightly above. I'll go try that right now. Certainly easier than adding yet another light.

Thanks,
Bob

[Kristy]

Glad to help.. I'm still learning myself.. Please post your result.. I'm interested to see. ;)

[magicmikey]

You might want to check out this post on another forum for a Photoshop technique for bringing out the eyes:
http://www.silverlakephoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7601

[pilot1962]

Photo looks underexposed to me, at least 1/2 stop...
This could be a reason...

[bobrock111565]

Thanks Mikey. I'm very competent with post processing in Photoshop, but wanted to capture as much color as possible in camera. I just tested the advice of Kristy and it helped tremendously. I lowered the lights to slightly below eye level and aimed upward slightly. There's a couple new shadows now but I can adjust and play with that. Here's a new shot with this adjustment...I can now begin to see eye color.

Thanks to all.

Bob

http://www.bobrock.com/Images/Bob006.jpg

[bobrock111565]

Pilot,
I believe you're right. I should learn to trust my meter. It just looked too bright when I shot to meter settings. But I think it would also help.

Thanks.

[forkball]

The problem with your mainlight at below eye level is you now have an awkward looking shadow from the tip of your nose being cast upward. I bet you dollars to donuts that your white balance is slightly off. Your first image seems to have a much warmer cast to it which would account for the color shift in the eyes. Are you using AWB? If so... STOP. Get a custom white balance by shooting a calibration target if possible... if not, anything truely nuetral in color will work. I used a piece of styrofoam to get the white balance for this shot.... and the color is DEAD on!!

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7691/a1jmhfc6.jpg