Let the light shine…

A very dear friend of mine signs all of her emails “Let your light shine for Him today…” – I love it…and it fits perfectly for my post today.  I promised a while back to start handing out some photo-tips…for FREE!  Wow, you can’t beat that in today’s economy!  I know most of the general public thinks custom photographers have lots their minds with their prices these days…but let me tell you there is ALOT that goes into creating the images that you see – beyond the one to two hour session of shooting.  I think I would have loves being a film-shooter…you get your shots in the camera, ship them off to the lab…and you’re done!  No sitting at the pc for hours on end editing, cropping, resizing, sharpening for print, sharpening for web, blah, blah, blah…

Where was I?  Oh yes…light.  In my most humble opinion, I believe a photographer’s best tool is light.  Yes, a good camera, the right lens, and some computer stuff to go along is helpful, but if you do not know how to see light, and use it…you end up with a backlight (dark front…meaning your child’s face is dark) subject.  So, my number one asked question is how do I get the color in my child’s eyes?  So, here is lesson #1 of how to use light to get bright colored eyes.

Take your child into their room and face them away from all windows, like towards the closet or something.  See how their pupil dialates large and the iris gets really small?  Now, take them towards the light (a window.)  Go at a time of day that the light is not making bright spots on the carpet…just filtering in the window.  In other words, when the sun is on top of your house or on another side of the house than the window you are facing.  As you bring them closer to the light, notice their pupils get smaller and the iris gets bigger…and NOW you can really see those baby blues or big brown eyes!

See, if you shoot with a flash in a dark room, the pupil doesn’t  have time to dialate smaller with a flash of light.  But shooting with natural light in a well-lit room…allow the iris to be larger and reflect the light…producing a beautiful colored eye.

…and isn’t it wonderful how God speaks to us in so many ways…just as the light brings out the beauty in our eyes…if we turn our lives towards Him…and let His light shine through us…we become more beautiful as well.