Catch Light Issues

Hello, I've been having catch light issues forever. I get a few too many 'dead eyes' imo. Looking for advice:

To simplify things, assume my main light is set at a standard 45°/45° (Rembrandt).

1) Sometimes the model is looking slightly downward or is looking away from main light. This could be a nice candid shot between poses or a spontaneous pose from the model. The shot is nice but it has dead eyes, and adding catch lights might look funny. How do you deal with this?

2) Once in a while I have a nice catchlight in one eye but in the other it's in the white of the eye, the corner, or missing. What am I doing wrong?

3) I learned in school that having a double catch light is something to usually avoid. But if I am shooting with a fill light close to the camera, I think it is unavoidable, right? Do people just remove one of the catch lights in post?

4) I've been shooting a lot of Asian dancers lately and a lot of them have very small eyes. So many dead eyes. If I ask them to open their eyes wider than normal, there face looks slightly strained and unnatural. How do you make adjustments for this? I'm of Asian decent so this question is no longer racist. : )

5) How high do you set your main light? Does the bottom of the box or umbrella come close to the top of the model's head? I think this might be one of my issues too, having the main light too high up.

Thanks for reading.

Kkamin

I wouldn't expect one lighting setup to do everything for you? If you expect that to happen, try putting another white reflector where it will do some good. OTOH, everything else gets PSed in images, so why not a catchlight, too?

kkamin wrote in post #9143545
To simplify things, assume my main light is set at a standard 45°/45° (Rembrandt).

Lower the light a bit, or use a large enough light that even at 45 degrees, you have the lower part of the light reaching the eye. That would show as half a catchlight extending down from the upper lid.

This tends to happen when you have the model looking too far to the side. That's useful sometimes, but it's usually less-than-pleasing.

I equalize catchlights in eyes by copying and pasting the good catchlight onto the bad iris. This has to be done with quite a bit of precision. I usually copy and paste the entire iris, carefully matching the perimeter by setting the copy to "Difference mode." Then I erase most of the copied iris down to the catchlight.

Yes. In most portrait styles, multiple catchlights are to be avoided because they're unnatural--even when viewers can't identify exactly what makes them uneasy about the portrait. They just realize "somethings not right." However, we have been raised seeing enough theatrical lighting that multiple catchlights (even discernible umbrella spokes) are acceptable in a female glamour portrait.

As above, lower the light or use a broad enough light that the lower edge reaches down to create a catchlight.

Yep. You got it.

Get a ring flash or ring flash adapter like the Ray Flash. Produce a soft light and a very nice catch light in the eyes.

Thanks, RDKirk, you response helped clarify things a lot! Thanks so much.

I picked up a couple of white foam core boards at Walmart for another project and ended up using them as reflectors while shooting my 1 year old. They worked quite well and are very cheap. That doesn't do much for the catch light, but will help keep the shadows down a bit.