Does the Shape of Your Catchlight Matter?
Wednesday 15 July 2026, 17:17 by Elja Trum | 1,029 views | 1 commentThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Many photographers pay remarkably close attention to catchlights, the reflections of the light source in your model's eyes. But how important are they really? And does the shape of your softbox really make a difference? In this video, Gavin Hoey looks for the answer in a fun and practical way.
Using a red balloon, he shows how different light shapers leave their reflection and why the position, size and distance of your light source often have much more influence than you might think. He then puts that knowledge straight into practice in a creative portrait shoot.
As we have come to expect from Gavin, he combines a technical subject with a practical photo shoot. According to Gavin, there is no single 'correct' catchlight. The shape of the reflection is often much less important than photographers sometimes think.
Factors such as the distance to your subject, the position of the lamp and the curvature of the reflective surface have at least as much influence on the end result.
What do you think about catchlights? Do you consciously pay attention to them while taking photos, or do you think their importance is often exaggerated? Let us know in the comments!
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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1 comment
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Hans wrote on Tuesday 21 July 2026 at 13:38 | replyI myself have photographed a lot at evening parties at weddings and events, and I consciously chose to photograph with my big Canon on-camera flash, with extendable white bounce flap. it takes a few test flashes to bring the light into balance with the ambient light, underexposing the aperture and flash by half or a full stop etc. consciously I choose not to bounce with the ceiling, either too brown or too high, always wrong, no controlled, flash head 45 degrees upwards and white plate extended at an angle of about 65 degrees. then every photo you take hits the mark, small catchlight in the eyes that make the eyes speak and bring the models to life, a beautiful result to my full satisfaction.
Translated from Dutch.
nowadays I see photographers taking photos with their mobile phone and an LED hoop in the other hand, I don't know the effect of that. at trade shows they showed me how to photograph through a large ring flash, around the pupil the ring can then be seen, personally I find that ugly just like the spots in the eyes from two or three studio flashes, tastes differ. Anyway , experimenting with your light can make a big difference.
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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
