focus on EYES

[bellaphoto]

I Love the effect where the childs eyes are so sharp and beautiful, they seem to pop out of the Photo. I love photographing children but i cant seem to creat this effect.
I used a Nikon D40 and just purchased the Canon 50D which i have not yet started using. Im hoping this well help.
Here are some websites that show what i am talking about.
how do i do this????
http://www.alwphotography.com/#home-f496b
http://www.eyesmilesphotography.com/

Thank you,

Romina Ludovico
www.Rominasphotography.com (http://www.Rominasphotography.com)

[Qarik]

3 things:

1) single focus point on the eyes with good lens and appropriate shutter speed and exposure

2) lower fstop to blur the background and empahize the focus.

3) good sharpening and postprocessing

[pathfinder]

:agree

With a strong emphasis on post processing after capturing great images.

Emphasizing the eyes in images, was done by painters long before the advent of photography.

Some painters even take it to extremes (http://alloutdoor.smugmug.com/galleries)

Some photographers/graphical artists do a similar thing with the Liquify command in Photoshop, to enlarge the eyes slightly and increase the contrast with the surrounding face.

[bellaphoto]

3 things:

1) single focus point on the eyes with good lens and appropriate shutter speed and exposure

2) lower fstop to blur the background and empahize the focus.

3) good sharpening and postprocessing


Thank you for the advice, I guess i need to practice!
I have a Canon 50D, what lens would you reccomend for portraits like that?
Thanks

[Candid Arts]

Thank you for the advice, I guess i need to practice!
I have a Canon 50D, what lens would you reccomend for portraits like that?
Thanks

I would look into the 50, 85, 100, or 135 primes from canon. the 50 and 85 both have a max. aperture of 1.2, the 100 and 135 both have a max. aperture of 2. The longer focal length and super wide apertures will give you a paper thin DOF and thus make the point of focus (in this case the eyes) stand out.

On top of that, like noted, is post processing. I usually like to paint in some clarity on the eyes (this is in LR2). I hadn't thought of using the liquify tool in PS3 to make the eyes bigger, that's a good idea, but don't do too much or it will look REALLY weird!

[Qarik]

Thank you for the advice, I guess i need to practice!
I have a Canon 50D, what lens would you reccomend for portraits like that?
Thanks

85 1.8/1.4 or 50 1/8/1.4 to start with. Good optics and you can take advantage of fstops in the 2.0 range for bokeh/isolation.

[JohnBiggs]

I use some custom brushes in LR2 to brighten the eyes, slightly whiten the whites, clarify and increase the saturation/vibrance in the iris. It works great. For a really good effect you can also add a little more color.