Wearing Eyeglasses to your Photoshoot

Let's talk about glasses! 😎

For a lot of people, wearing eyeglasses is a part of them, myself included. So it's typically not something that clients think about in prepping for a photoshoot, which trust me, I totally get it! It's how you see the world every day, why would you even think twice about it? I've been wearing glasses since 2nd grade, tried out the transitional lenses, and eventually made the switch to contacts in 6th grade. Since then, I've been a full time contact wearer up until recently. My eyes haven't been getting enough oxygen over the last few years, meaning I needed to learn to wear prescription glasses again. It has definitely been a transition. My prescription changed a little too, so it made the adjustment even harder. As I've been wearing my glasses more and taking photos of myself, I felt the desire to write about this, since many of my clients wear glasses themselves. So if you or someone in your group wears glasses, this post is for you. It's a little lengthy, but I would really encourage you to read on, consider your options, and what would make the most sense for you.

With so much advanced lens technology there is these days, it's hard for me to know what exactly you might have, how reflective they might be, and how I can best work with them. There are different forms of the blue light blocking technology, UV blocking stuff, different anti-glare coatings, transitional lenses, and other things that I probably don't even know much about. Some glasses have a purple or even green glare to them when light hits.

Let's get this out on the table right now. Ultimately it is your decision if you want to wear your glasses or not for our photoshoot. If you are blind as a bat without them and don't have an alternative way of seeing, then by all means, please wear them! If they are what make you, you, wear them! If you need to gain more self-confidence in your glasses, keep them on! I would also recommend kids and the elderly to keep them on. We do not want kids to feel like something is “wrong” with them just because they wear glasses. But just know that some glare might be inevitable and I cannot easily edit out or "fix" the way the lenses look. I will do the best I can in terms of posing and shooting at the proper angle, but it can get very complex. Certain angles just look better on people. However, that specific angle might really show the reflection of your glasses. There are SO many factors that go into it. It's not just a certain pose or angle that I can always do and will work 100% of the time. A lot of the times, tilting your head helps eliminate glare, but that is not ideal for every pose and sometimes isn't flattering. Depending on how far we need to have you tilt your head, we then run into the frames possibly covering your eyes. There are a lot of considerations I have to take but also you have to think about as well.

For example, in my glasses I have protection against UV light, blue light, and anti-glare stuff. It literally is all about the lighting, angle, and reflections. I took these selfies in front of my window with my phone (indirect light - but light). In the left photo, I was able to tilt my head enough and angle my selfie in a way that you don't see any of the purple glare. In the middle photo, you can see just a little bit of it in the corner. This was my favorite photo of myself out of all of these, but as you can see, not the best to eliminate the purple glare. In the right photo, I opened myself up more to the direction of the light, but clearly you can see so much purple.

This is a legit concern and something we need to talk about before your session! There is no perfect answer for everyone. I will try my best when shooting and editing, but it can be very challenging because there's many factors that I just can't control that are involved. As I stated before, the angles and poses that might work best on you, your glasses might not agree. It's easy to take selfies with your phone and over time instantly know the best way to take a selfie, but when someone else is photographing you, it's totally different!

Things to consider:

• Transitional lenses - These turn darker (brown or black) when they detect UV light, making clear glasses look like sunglasses. I'm not able to edit these or remove the dark look to them.

• Sunglasses - Please just don't wear them for portrait sessions. The only time it's ever sometimes okay to wear sunglasses for photos is for those standing up for a bride and groom during an outdoor wedding ceremony, and even this should be the bride and grooms decision. Otherwise, if you have a medical condition that requires you to wear them, please wear them! If you are very sensitive to light like me, please let me know and we will be sure to schedule a golden hour session to avoid harsh sunlight (if outdoors).

• Glasses with purple or green glare - This is an extremely tricky one. As mentioned before, it's nearly impossible to completely 100% avoid the purple or green glare in certain situations. It can also be very hard to edit out, depending on the positioning, lighting, and angle. Sometimes it's easy to remove if it's just skin behind the glare, but if the glare is covering your eyeball or just hitting on a weird part of your glasses, it's nearly impossible. Sometimes a little desaturation works, but thats the best case scenario, which unfortunately is not often.

• Warm tinted glasses - Some glasses have a yellow/orange tint to them. Depending on the strength, sometimes these can actually be easy to fix. It would require desaturating yellow and maybe orange, so avoid wearing those colors so I don't desaturate your clothes!

• If you have other means of being able to see (like wearing contacts), I would encourage you to consider that option.

• Wear a hat! This can help protect your eyes from certain lighting situations. Not to mention, it adds an extra element of fun to your photos!

• If you wish to remove them, please know your limits as your safety is important to me!

• We embrace it and do the best we can :)

I want you to be comfortable and stay true to yourself.

Eyes are so unique to each and every one of us. The last thing we want to do is cover them up, but we also don't want to hide who we are. I love capturing real, raw beauty. If wearing glasses 100% of the time is truly you, then we will work with it! I don't want to hide who you are and what makes you, you. I also don't want you to regret anything after the fact (you wear your glasses, but then see the photos and don't like seeing the glare/color or wish you took them off OR you don't wear them, but then you see the photos and feel like it just isn't you without your glasses). I will not tell you what you should do since there are many personal things you should consider but I will do the best I can on my end!