Help with catchlight..Portrait help please

Question

Hi there I am looking for someone who know's about catchlight and Portrait, I have a photo of what I am aiming for, if someone who know's their stuff could please help?

Answer 1

That kid looks like he has bits of potato chip stuck in his eyes! From a distance it's fine, but up close...
The catch light should reflect the fact that the eyeball is spherical, it should also follow the lighting on the face. Remember it’s a reflection of what's in front of the kid. Attached is part of an (unfinished) image I painted in PS. The catchlight here shows shadows from the eyelashes and is stronger in the right hand eye
It depends entirely on the light at the time. sometimes the catchlight is simply a small white dot, or two, (preferably with a very slight flare) but seldom the large white blob the baby above has. A catchlight like this can be drawn or enhanced fairly easily with the brush tool, as long as its not overly bright. Hope this helps.
Didn’t see the above post when I wrote this, but that's a great example. Its not actually a window reflected in her eye, it’s a soft box light with bars to make it look like a window, as the poster says, its not hard to make with the distort tools in photoshop.
Message was edited by: slashpot