Catchlights can never be undervalued when it comes to portraits. Often perceived as “breathing light or soul” into the subject, catchlights also are a handy decipher instrument that you can use to figure out what pre-light setup was used.
David Bergman with AdoramaTV explores catchlights in a Two Minute Tips video.
What are catchlights? When you look at a person’s face, inside each eye’s pupil there would be a beam of light that shines through. That is a catchlight. It shines off the reflective surface of the eye bouncing right into your eye, and creating that magical connection or at least an impression of it.
Catching Catchlights
Being the most common source of catchlights, the sun light appears in model’s eyes’ top corner , for obvious reasons. In order to “catch” a catch light the model has to be turned directly toward the light source. Thus, if you want to imitate the sunlight with the strobe, place a light source above, front, to the side of the model.
Deciphering Catchlights
The geometry of a catchlight is very distinct in the eye and fully resembles the shape of the light source.
Here is a example of umbrella catchlight.
Here is rectangular softbox.
And here is Youtube beauty gurus’ most favorite ring light
How many catchlights do you see on this photo?