50th Wedding Anniversary Portrait

I took some photos yesterday of my parents to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary...here is one my sisters decided upon. The problem I was having was the eyeglass glare...I tried keeping their heads tilted down but didn't make much difference, plus they didn't want this "chin down" effect to increase their double chins.

The light setup was a softbox camera right, slightly higher than the shoot thru umbrella camera left, 2 stops lower than cam. right light..plus a hair light shot through a 20 degree grid.

I was able to fix the glare in post, but would have rather just positioned the lights in a way so the glare was eliminated to begin with....any tips on how to avoid the glare...maybe I should have raised both lights higher?

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Nice job, and great looking parents!

Three things can be done to eliminate eyeglass glare. I like and use number one and three the best.

1. Have them borrow an empty set of lensless eyeglass frames from their eye doctor.

2. Remove the lenses from their existing frames.

3. Shoot an image or two without their eyeglasses on, then in Photoshop place the good eyes and surrounding skin into the best image then erase whatever has glare. I do this all the time and you absolutely cannot tell.

A couple things I would do to the above image.

1. Vignette the bottom so their torso's don't just abruptly stop.

2. Clone out those little bright spots on the background above and beside your dad's head.

Benji

Great lighting and post processing. I know very little about formal portrait photography, esp of groups. For me, the warmth and engagement of your subjects is lacking in this image. I dont know how to fix it.you mom has a nice expression. you caught your dad with his mouth half open, he is turning away from the camera to the outside of the frame, and looks like he is thinking "be done with it already".

Benji wrote in post #7479977
Nice job, and great looking parents!

Three things can be done to eliminate eyeglass glare. I like and use number one and three the best.

1. Have them borrow an empty set of lensless eyeglass frames from their eye doctor.

2. Remove the lenses from their existing frames.

3. Shoot an image or two without their eyeglasses on, then in Photoshop place the good eyes and surrounding skin into the best image then erase whatever has glare. I do this all the time and you absolutely cannot tell.

A couple things I would do to the above image.

1. Vignette the bottom so their torso's don't just abruptly stop.

2. Clone out those little bright spots on the background above and beside your dad's head.

Benji

Thanks Benji....I was hoping you'd see this post....anyway, I actually used a photo I took of them w/o the glasses to fix the glare in this photo...I was thinking ahead at least to the post processing. I'll remember the empty frames idea...but most people I think would say this is a pain to get the exact frames and I don't think the lenses are easilly removed. But will keep this in the back of the old mind.

Is there any different lighting setup that would help?

I like the edit. Well done!

kevindar wrote in post #7480023
Great lighting and post processing. I know very little about formal portrait photography, esp of groups. For me, the warmth and engagement of your subjects is lacking in this image. I dont know how to fix it.you mom has a nice expression. you caught your dad with his mouth half open, he is turning away from the camera to the outside of the frame, and looks like he is thinking "be done with it already".

Well, my Dad is a never serious...he actually brought BillyBob teeth and put them in w/o my Mom seeing him and he couldn't keep from laughing...which caused his face to turn red....as for the mouth open, that's just him even though it looks like he may have been caught off guard.

DD974 wrote in post #7480077
Is there any different lighting setup that would help?

Try having them tilt the tops of their frames forward (raising the temple pieces slightly). That often helps enormously with glare.

SuzyView wrote in post #7480082
I like the edit. Well done!

Thank you!

Fabulous!! Congrats to them, btw.

jgrussell wrote in post #7480102
Try having them tilt the tops of their frames forward (raising the temple pieces slightly). That often helps enormously with glare.

I do have a couple shots from the session where I have no glare on my Dad's glasses, but was still on my Mom's. Thanks.

4mykids wrote in post #7480204
Fabulous!! Congrats to them, btw.

Thanks Tracey....I've only been married 18 years...and making it to 50 just blows my mind! My in-laws have been together over 60!

DD974 wrote in post #7480077
Thanks Benji....I was hoping you'd see this post....anyway, I actually used a photo I took of them w/o the glasses to fix the glare in this photo...I was thinking ahead at least to the post processing. I'll remember the empty frames idea...but most people I think would say this is a pain to get the exact frames and I don't think the lenses are easilly removed. But will keep this in the back of the old mind.

Is there any different lighting setup that would help?

Back in the bad old days (pre-Photoshop) we had usually had to sacrifice the lighting to keep the reflections to a minimum but now that we have Photoshop we can light them the best we know how.

I don't critique here at POTN much anymore as there are so many "know it Newtons" that when I say something negative it is usually drowned out by the multitude of "good shot" "perfect image" great stuff" comments from the guys who have owned their Rebel XT camera for a whole two months and of course they are absolutely convinced that now know everything that can be known about professional image making.

I only have 27 years as a professional portrait photographer so of course according to most on POTN anyone who has done anything that long can't be too sharp.

Glad I could be some help.

Benji

Benji wrote in post #7482161
Back in the bad old days (pre-Photoshop) we had usually had to sacrifice the lighting to keep the reflections to a minimum but now that we have Photoshop we can light them the best we know how.

I don't critique here at POTN much anymore as there are so many "know it Newtons" that when I say something negative it is usually drowned out by the multitude of "good shot" "perfect image" great stuff" comments from the guys who have owned their Rebel XT camera for a whole two months and of course they are absolutely convinced that now know everything that can be known about professional image making.

I only have 27 years as a professional portrait photographer so of course according to most on POTN anyone who has done anything that long can't be too sharp.

Glad I could be some help.

Benji

Benji,

If I see you've replied to a thread, I always open it. I'm new to the game and so, so appreciate the perspective and wisdom that someone like you has to offer.

As far as the glasses and reflections go - what about turning the light slightly so that the light isn't hitting the glasses directly? Will that work?

This link talks about specular highlights

http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com …2-specular-highlight.html

MonteMama wrote in post #7482192
Benji,

If I see you've replied to a thread, I always open it. I'm new to the game and so, so appreciate the perspective and wisdom that someone like you has to offer.

As far as the glasses and reflections go - what about turning the light slightly so that the light isn't hitting the glasses directly? Will that work?

Christy,

I have discovered some glasses are worse than others. You pretty much just gotta light them and look and see. As I mentioned I don't sacrifice my lighting anymore to get rid of the glare.

Thanks for the kind words.

Benji