ject’s face. Second, you can have the subject change the direction of their
eyes to look higher, lower, or to one side of the camera.
Typically, the center of the eye is positioned toward the corner of the eye
opening. This enlarges the appearance of the eye and gives the eye more im-
pact. This is achieved by turning the face toward the main light while the
eyes come back to the camera. This works well for all shapes of eyes, except
for people with bulging eyes. When this is done on bulging eyes, too much
of the white will show and draw attention to the problem.
Eye Contact.The point at which you ask the subject to focus their gaze in
respect to the position of the camera’s lens also, in essence, poses the eye.
First and foremost, the subject should always be looking at someone, not
something. To do this, I put my face where I want their eyes to be. There is
a certain spark that the eyes have when they look into someone else’s eyes that
they don’t have when they are looking at a spot on the wall or a camera lens.
36 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
When the mouth smiles, the eyes must smile,
too—otherwise the expression won’t look
natural.