I felt that the most difficult part in portrait retouching is retouching the eyes, as they play a key role in how a portrait looks it becomes important to enhance the eyes and make them look natural at the same time. I never understood where to place, how big the catch light can be. Below is an image I worked on retouching the eyes and adjusted the catch light. I would like some professional input on retouching eyes and placing catch light, based on the input I have adjusted the catch light and add the image to the same post
Below is the modified image based on suggestions.
I think the overall brightness of her eyes is a bit too much and needs to be taken down. the whites of her eyes her eyes look like shiny plastic. A bigger problem though is the shape of the catchlight. There’s too much curvature and it’s curving the wrong way. Think about the shape of the cornea and how light would hit and wrap to it.
Thanks Michael for your suggestion
Ideally of course the catch lights would be the photographer’s responsibility, but if you are forced to create them, keep them as real as possible. Notice the real ones don’t curve with the eye as much. Also, keep them in a physically possible location. Yours are a bit higher than they could be in reality (if they were that high, they wouldn’t appear in the eye because they would be casting a shadow there.) Maybe a bit overcooked on the whites. Very very close though. It’s so subtle with eyes….
Thanks Brian for sharing your opinion
You see the irregularity in the catch light in the original image before enhancement, this creates a more natural effect. I would also either take down the whiteness of the catch light or blur it slightly to give a more lifelike feeling.