Spectacles in Tintype Portraits
Wearing glasses in tintype portraits presents unique challenges and considerations that can affect the final image.
Modern coatings on glasses lenses are made to protect your eyes from damaging UV rays. But as the wet plate collodion process mostly just captures UV light on the blue side of the spectrum that can cause your clear glasses lenses to appear as tinted. From a slight amount all the way to full on sunglasses.
Another consideration with glasses are the potential reflections from the studio lights and reflectors used in the making of tintype portraits.
Left - Clear glasses that become tinted due to their UV coatings. Right - Reflections from the main studio light and reflector.
What can be done to avoid these two issues?
The easiest is by not wearing glasses for the portrait. As a glasses wearer, I fully understand those that need glasses to navigate the world then have those glasses as part of your look. I am one of those people. I am not keen on photographs of me without my glasses. Here are a few options of what can be done to avoid the above issues…
Remove the lenses - This is easier suggested than done. And in some cases cannot be done. I remember as a high school kid that the Josten’s photographer took the lenses out of my glasses for school photos. I will not be that photographer. If anyone is going to break your glasses, I do not want it to be me. Alternatively, if you have an older pair of glasses that still speaks to your look, pop those old lenses out and rock them in your portrait.
Buy cheap frames - There are online retailers where you can buy fairly inexpensive frames without prescription lenses for $12 to $38. Find some that match your style and pop the lenses out when you get them. Also, drug stores sell cheap prescription readings glasses if you want to avoid online retailers. Try on.. buy and bust the lenses out. You’re ready to go.
Lean into it - If you know it’ll happen and are good with it then lets just make a portrait.
Avoiding the tinting and reflections aren’t all your responsibility. As a professional portrait artist I do have culpability in this. And I have a few tactics I can use to lessen the tint on a pair of glasses and reduce pesky reflections.
This is the reshoot of the above image:
What did I do different?
For the glasses that tint due to coatings, I lessened their effect by increasing the amount of light on the sitter’s face. I added an additional flash pointed directly at her from photo left. Brightening the face behind the lenses allowed more of her eye to be visible. The downside is there are less shadows in an image which can make it less dramatic and more flat.
For the glasses on the right, I just tried to adjust the position of the sitter’s head so that the reflections did not obscure the eye. The issue with this is that the reflections aren’t fully visible with the modelling light of my flashes compared to when they are actually fired for the photo, so it is not fool proof. Additionally, it depends on how well the sitter can hold the position they are directed to until the photo is made.
Note that the tint and reflections are still present. The only way to completely eliminate this is by removing the lenses.
Now that we are all on the same page, bring your beautiful selves with your glasses or without and get your heirloom portrait made. These sessions are a collaboration between you and me, and I could not be more thrilled to bring your artistic vision to life.
If you’re interested in having your tintype portrait made at my little studio here in Calgary, follow this link to see my current availability.