It's all in the eyes

It is said that the eyes are a window to the soul.  Just by looking at the eyes in a photograph you can almost feel the emotion the subject was feeling.  When I was first starting my journey as a professional photographer I was sitting in my bedroom just testing out my shiny new Nikon D200 and my lab mix Allie rolled over and looked at me.  Thankfully my camera was ready and I captured the moment.  It was one of those times when you don't really have time to think about the shot.  You just crop and shoot. 

While the photo has nice leading lines what really makes the image is her eyes.  If she was looking off instead of straight into the camera I don't think it would be nearly as endearing.  Her soft, almost golden eyes immediately draw attention.  This is also why, in many cases eyes are an essential part of portraiture.  So many times I see images where all the elements are there in the right proportion but the eyes aren't quite looking at the camera.  For me this takes a lot of the value of the picture away.  You no longer have that connection with the image.

This isn't to say that every portrait or image of a person/people has to have everyone looking directly into the camera.  For instance if there is a mother and child in the image and their eyes are locked on each other it is their interaction that is key instead of their interaction with the person viewing the photograph.  More than anything the interaction has to be present. Incidentally this is why I prefer to have brand new babies sleeping in pictures.  I don't mean to say that there should never be an image of a newborn with its eyes open.  I even have some of these types of images on my walls.  Since infants don't really start to engage their surroundings for a few weeks it is hard to capture the emotion and connection in their eyes.

Below is the image I started this post with.  It remains one of my favorite images of Allie in large part to her eyes.  They aren't the excited eyes of the dog that greets me when I come home.  Instead they are the eyes of a companion that always seems to know what I'm feeling.