Quick Tip To Make Eyes Pop In Photos

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about makeup. However, I know a lot about photography. This isn’t so much a “do” but rather a “don’t.” There is one mistake that I see clients and those who dabble in makeup artistry make over and over again. It is something that may look alright on a person in real life but doesn’t look so great in photos. 

What’s the mistake? Putting too much eyeliner on the bottom lashline. You may think that placing a thick line of eyeliner on your lower lashes will accentuate your eyes and make them standout and pop. However, this may seem counterintuitive, but this heavy line actually closes off her eyes and prevents me as a photographer from creating catchlights. 

What’s a catchlight, you ask? It’s that little sparkle in your eyes in a photograph when the light hits them just right. They are important for creating life and dimension in a portrait. A lack of catchlights can look dark, boring, and flat. The color black absorbs light rather than reflects it so a heavy black liner will simply steal any available light rather than reflecting it back into the eye. 

Heavy eyeliner on the bottom lashline has a lot of negative effects including: creating the impression of dark circles under the eyes, making you look tired, and giving you raccoon eyes in photos. 

Here are some quick tips for doing eyeliner the right way: make sure any line that you place on the bottom lid is thin and barely noticeable. Don’t ever put eyeliner on the inner corners of your bottom lid and don’t ever place eyeliner on the waterline of your lower lid (I see this one a lot). 

See? That was a quick and painless tip to make sure your eyes are as sparkly and popping as they can be in photographs.