How To Light People With Glasses And Avoid Shoot-Crippling Glare

Wendell Weithers

Among the many considerations that surround lighting your subject, the fact that they wear glasses can easily be overlooked. It is small variable but, it is one that can be very disruptive if you are unprepared or unequipped to adjust to their presence in your shoot.

No matter how well you light your scene, an unseemly glare in the lenses of your client can be distracting enough to be shoot-crippling which ruins your day. Luckily, Caleb Pike shares some great tips for fighting the glare in your subject’s glasses.

1 – Angle, Height, & Distance

Take some time before shooting to figure out the best angle from which to light your subject. A good tool to use for this quickly is your phone. Its quick and doesn’t require that you move your real light source around causing you to disrupt your shoot.

2 – Use fill

Putting your light source off to angle may cause some dark shadows to appear on the face of your subject. Use a soft fill from a reflector or foam core to cut some of the dramatic shadows out of your subjects face.

3 – Use A large soft light source

Every pair of glasses isn’t created equal and some have better anti-glare coating that handle direct light better than others. A large soft light reduces the amount of glare on the lens and the shadows produced by the frames of the glasses.

These are useful insights that, in a general sense, give you some creative lighting options. But they are also tips that can be use for both stills and video.

Source: DSLR Video Shooter

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