Bird Photography: Active Energetic Eyes or Dull Lifeless Eyes

^{Note: This tip comes from the photography case study #2 ‘Catchlights’ inside Photzy’s - 5 Extended Case-Studies on Bird Photography}

What is the first thing you notice about the above bird photograph?

The eyes look pretty lifeless. Don’t they?

Most birds, though not all, have very dark, black eyes. In most cases, if there is color in the eyes, it encompasses a much smaller portion of the eye than that of other types of wildlife.

The bright spot that you see in the eye in this second photograph is a “catchlight.” Capturing a catchlight in the eye is very important in bird photography, as it opens up the face and gives the bird some personality.

A catchlight can happen naturally, be created with a light source (such as an electronic flash), or be added in post-production.

Any of those options is quite acceptable. The importance is to include the catchlight whenever possible. This is especially true for sitting, standing, or perched birds. With birds in flight, it is less critical and might appear unnatural depending on the lighting and situation.

I added a catchlight to the first image using Photoshop with a paintbrush set to 4 pixels and a hardness value of 50. The color was solid white.

Can you see how it has brightened up the bird’s face and made the bird a more robust subject in the composition?

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)