Tips for Handling Glasses Reflections Lighting with Studio Portraits

Lighting  •  Photography Tips  •  Portrait Photography  •  Studio Photography

It’s a nightmare to find reflections on a subject’s glasses. Some prefer to ask subjects to remove glasses entirely, and with good reason. But Photographer Gavin Hoey from Adorama has another approach. His idea is to instead embrace the reflections and make them work to your advantage. In today’s video, he shows how you can do just that—but also also get rid of them without using Photoshop, if you prefer.

While we spend most of our time finding ways to get glasses reflections out of our shots, Hoey takes an entirely different approach. For a profile shot with a dark background, he adjusts the key light in such a way that the reflection moves to the center of the glass and becomes one of the highlights of the image.

“For this effect to really work, you’ve got to find some sunglasses that have a real wrap or curved front to them.”

He also demonstrates how you can create an interesting reflection with the subject directly facing the camera. For this purpose, he places a light source with a round aperture slightly above the subject. It helps if the subject turns their head slightly toward the light source.

By the end of the video, Hoey also shares how you can make use of angles to get rid of any reflection from showing up in the image. The concept is rather simple and will save you loads of time you’d otherwise have to spend in Photoshop.

If reflections in glasses bother you a lot, we highly recommend that you watch the complete video. We’re sure Hoey’s insights will help you out a lot.