Catchlights

[Chris Saper]

Hi Sandy,

With regard to catchlights, I tend to treat them the same way I treat highlights in general: paint them in a temperature opposite of the color of the light source. In other words, if my subject is lit by a warm light (sunlight or incandescent light) I will use an extremely light blue, blue-green or violet, possibly a cool icy pink. Conversely, in a cool light source I would use a warmer hue...a very light raw umber or something like that.

Unless you are using a flash attched to your camera (which shouldn't be used as a source photo anyway) I can't imagine a situation where the catchlight is actually in the pupil itself.

The catchlight will actually have a shape, as well as a location on the eye. If you are painting very small you can get a away with a splotch, but in anything approaching life-size, it's better to actually observe and paint the shape. I feel also that it is better to understate the highlight than to overstate it.

Karin Wells has a post that is very intriguing, about the different expressions created by a catchlights placed higher, rather then lower, in the eyes.