should I wear glasses in my headshot and family portraits | Nashville Headshot Photographer

Worried about wearing your glasses for your new headshot? Whether you’ve always struggled with your vision and needed supplementary assistance or if you are new to the game (ahem – got a lot of candles on the birthday cake these days) you may find yourself considering wearing your glasses at your next headshot.  Fear not!  You can have a great headshot or family portrait with your glasses on!

When a client asks me if they should wear their glasses in their portrait, my general rule of thumb is this: If you wear your glasses 75% or more of the time, if your friends and family know you with glasses, and if you want a photo that looks like you, you should wear them. If you are unsure, take some photos with your glasses and without them and decide after you see the images.  Be sure to look at the results while wearing your glasses!

Here are 5 tips to be sure your get great photos while wearing your glasses in front of the camera:

 

1. Make sure your glasses are clean. Wipe them with a lens cloth. Dust and dirt can be picked up by the camera that you might not see when you aren’t wearing your glasses, so don’t trust your eyes for this one. Clean them so they are free of dirt and smudges.

2. Sometimes the light source will reflect in one or both lenses. Your photographer may adjust the light source, if moveable, or may have you turn your body and/or the angle of your face until they can see the reflection is gone. Tilting your nose down slightly can really make a difference if the light is bouncing off of your glasses.

3. Changing the position of the glasses is sometimes necessary when changing the lighting isn’t an option (think sun, large light source, etc.)  Raising the arm of the glasses just a bit above the ear to rest higher than normal at the ear greatly changes the angle of the lens of your glasses without looking too much different from how you normally wear your glasses.

4. Another successful tip is to place the light source behind you. For outdoor photos, this is generally easy to accomplish anytime of the day except for the last 30 minutes or so of the day, when the sun has almost set.

5. And when all else fails, there are great editing resources available online, like www.retouchup.com, for removal of pesky glare spots on glasses. For a nominal fee, retouching experts can correct the problem in 24 hours and have your photo looking great. Retouchup.com has been my editing source for difficult jobs that exceed my photoshop skills and the results are always fantastic.

The next time you are considering whether or not to wear your glasses in professional photos, I hope you’ll feel confident that your decision to wear them is the right one. Don’t settle for glare!

For more information on headshots with Karen, head over to www.khpheadshots.com.