Note: Photographers’ Friday is a weekly blog series directed toward professional photographers, and in some instances, serious amateur photographers. All Photographers’ Friday blog posts will assume that readers have a basic working knowledge of digital SLR cameras, but if you’re left with questions or don’t understand any of the information, don’t hesitate to ask. We love e-mails!

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When a portrait subject has a spark in her eye, energy crackles right out of the image.

The technical term for that spark is almost as magical: It’s called catchlight. It isn’t something that we capture in every portrait, but it’s something we want in a good percentage of our portraits when the subject’s eyes are visible, because catchlight makes the subject look so lively, alert, and beautiful. Like this.There are two primary ways to get catchlight in your subject’s eyes:

1.) Tilt your subject’s face toward a reflective surface, such as a sidewalk or light colored wall, or toward the brightest surface in the area, such as a window or the sky (that’s the sunset reflecting in Nikole’s eyes above). We often use handheld reflectors to provide fill light — and often catchlight from the reflector occurs as well.
2.)  Use flash to create an artificial catchlight (that’s 100% off-camera flash that’s reflecting in Amber’s eyes below).This isn’t a technical blog post about the perfect angle to position your subject to get the catchlight at just the right spot in the iris, or what size softbox is going to give you the most pleasing catching from off-camera flash. I  really just want to point out that catchlight is out there — and that you should go searching for it, or create it, at every opportunity. Do I think a lack of catchlight ruins a portrait? Absolutely not. Do I think it enhances every portrait? Absolutely yes.

~ Laura