The Eyes Have It

It’s stating the obvious to say that the eyes are the most important part of any portrait, though like all such ‘rules’ there are brilliant examples to show it untrue. But it remains a good working basis – and we can’t be brilliant all the time :-), and making the kind of run-of-the-mill images of people that I do, particularly of the speakers at protests such as the Stand Up to Racism Rally certainly the first rule is to look at the eyes – and to focus on them.

Some people blink more than others, and some often speak, especially in bright sun, with their eyes closed.  Others, particularly those who read their speeches or have copious notes, spend much of their time looking down. It’s often a matter of watching them and catching the moment when they do look up, sometimes fleetingly.

I usually, but not always, photograph with my right eye. When others photograph me at work, my left eye is often screwed tight shut as I concentrate on the viewfinder with the other. But while photographing people speaking, especially when using a DSLR where only the actual image area is seen in the viewfinder, I usually keep that left eye open, so I can see the speaker as a whole. It makes it easier to catch gestures, and easier to anticipate when people might look up and open their eyes. Using the 18-105mm DX lens on the FX D800E  when you see a considerable area outside the image frame is also a help.

One great help on all digital cameras is the ability to see immediately if you have taken a picture with the subject’s eyes open. Even those with the steadiest of gazes do occasionally blink, and sometimes cameras seem to have a built in capacity to capture this. On the Nikon D700 I use Custom setting f2 to set the ‘Multi Selector Center Button’ in Playback Mode to Zoom on, High Magnification. If you have taken a picture focussing on the eyes, a simple press will show a highly magnified image centred on the focus area.

I seldom ‘chimp’ when working – for me it disrupts the flow of my work. Sometimes I find I’ve worked a whole day without looking at an image on the camera back, occasionally with unfortunate results. But photographing speakers is a something I make an exception for, checking regularly to see if I those eyes were open, as well as for the gestures and expressions I had hoped to catch. Unlike much of what I do, it is worth checking because if you have missed what you were trying to photograph, people usually repeat similar gestures and characteristic expressions.

Eyes are also often in shadow, set into the face below the forehead. With people who wear hats the problem is often worse.  Mentally we compensate for this and usually fail to notice what the camera faithfully records.  Back in the black and white darkroom days we did it with waving small cards or lumps of Blutak on thin wires above the print, or sometimes with a little ferricyanide bleach and other tricks.

I’m not sure if Reuters or the World Press Photo would approve, but I often find a little extra brightness and contrast with the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom (and sometimes some of that mysterious clarity) produces an image that seems more true to life. Occasionally it’s something I overdo.

Looking through my images from the Stand Up to Racism Rally it is the eyes that stand out, rather more than usual in my sets of pictures. But even in other sets, such as the images in Britain First Protests anti-Racist March the eyes are important, and I think play an important part  in how we read the images of these racists in their forest of Union flags. Somehow it seemed appropriate that they were standing in front of Lilywhites.

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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

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