Best way to get beautiful Siamese cat blue eyes?

[praline3001]

Step 1. Find a Siamese cat (luckily I had one handy)

Step 2. Follow her around with your camera for 2 hours (she is a kitten) until she tires out.


Now on to taking the photo... I am having a huge issue getting those huge baby blues to come out. The more light I add, the more reflection shows in the pupils. I find the reflection in the pupils extremely distracting. How can I light up the blue part while minimizing that terrible reflection? I know MORE LIGHT, MUST HAVE MORE LIGHT... but when I do I just get more glare due to the reflectiveness in the blue.

Here is the unedited (except for a bit of cropping) version

12-18-2011 123 by praline3001, on Flickr

Since I can NOT draw eyeballs to save my life, I added a creative filter to try and fix the glare and softener her up a bit to look like the cute cuddly kitten she is.

12-18-2011 123333 by praline3001, on Flickr


I have seen 100s of adorable Siamese blue eyed photos so I know there is a way to do it. I tried using flash with diffuser and bouncing the light BUT she closes her eyes the moment the flash goes off. I get her sqinty evil eye look. Anyone have any suggestions I can try?

[Tiberius]

Why do you think more light?

I'd suggest putting your cat somewhere brighter, because it looks like her pupils have dilated due to low light levels. Put her somewhere brighter and the pupils will constrict, showing more blue.

Place the light off at an angle so you don't see it in the eyes. Kinda similar to shooting someone with glasses. Given the amount of ambient light you should have in a brighter environment, you shouldn't need much flash.