When making a portrait, getting the eyes right is crucial.
The eyes should be in perfect focus, unless there is an artistic reason for them to be out of focus. The eyes should be looking directly at the viewer, unless there is an artistic reason for them not to be. And, of course, the eyes should have a catchlight, unless, well, you get the point.
Catchlights are a technique that has been used in portraiture for a very long time. Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring from the year 1665 is an example.
Effective use of catchlights is the stuff of online photography advice and can have dramatic effects on an image’s impact. National Geographic’s Afghan Girl is another, likely familiar, example.
So, of course, I made sure to get a catchlight in the preferred 2 o’clock position in this portrait of one of the many toys I inherited from my dad.
The catchlight gives this early example of an action figure a sense of life, a feeling of animation. The catchlight draws the viewer’s eyes to the face and brings to mind a question of what “Electron Man” (my name; I have no idea what the original name of Electron Man was or what motivated his designers to give him weapons for hands. Doesn’t it make you wonder how he eats?) is thinking as he raises his circular-saw hand. Maybe he’s asking for a straw to drink his meal.