Tricky stuff!

[fstopper89]

I thought I’d post this one. This is a senior girl I did tonight. She has an uncommon eye disorder which makes it impossible for her pupils to dilate. She has special contacts, but still can’t see well (she cannot drive a vehicle, and she has to look at her cell phone very closely). Because of this, even small amounts of light hurt her eyes. We had to make special accommodations during her shoot- mom and her two friends were great at holding up the blanket to block the sun. We had very intermittent sunlight, I mean the sky was dotted for miles with dark clouds and it was nice when it became blocked for a minute by a cloud. I took many more photos of the same poses because in half of them she was squinting so much her eyes were just closed. Though this image looks like they’re practically closed, this is her “normal” look when she is smiling. It was tough! Of course, that’s just her, and everyone knows it. Talk about a challenge though!

[nesgran]

Do you not mean pupils can’t contract? It is tricky if your subject can’t tolerate light but do you reckon she would have been better off in the shade with a flash or two?

[Worst Case Scenario]

Nice shot, I’m sure they will be pleased with that.

I did a wedding a while back with a groom who was completely cross eyed, the shots looked great and they loved them but as the photographer you can never be happy with them.

[cameraclicker]

Sounds like her eyes are always dilated.   Her contacts are miniature ND filters?

She sounds like an excellent subject for strobes.  Shoot in a dark room with just modelling lights at a low setting.  The flash fires too fast for the eyes to react.  You could get the same effect in a dimly lit room with small flash, which fires even faster if you don’t need full power.

[nesgran]

Her contacts are miniature ND filters?

You mean like, erm, sunglasses? Sorry, couldn’t help myself 🙂

[fstopper89]

This image was in a completely shaded area. We did most in the shade, or with the blanket right out of the frame. Her pupils don’t constrict or dilate I guess, but I forgot the name of the disorder. She actually has very pretty blue-green eyes but they’re like slivers!

Last year I did a family shoot, and the mom more or less has a mullet. The photos turned out great, but it’s hard for me to like them because of that.

[cameraclicker]

Yep!  Like sunglasses!  But my sunglasses are blue blockers, so everything looks better through the sunglasses.  I’m hoping her contacts are more neutral than my sunglasses, so she sees colour accurately. 🙂

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