In portraits, should the smaller or larger eye be turned away from the camera?
Asked 5/17/2015
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A portrait book says that if a subject has one eye smaller than the other, you can make them look more equal by turning the smaller eye away from the lens. I’ve also read the opposite advice elsewhere.
Which is generally correct when posing a subject at an angle, and why?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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Due to the way perspective works the larger eye should be the one closer to the camera and the smaller eye should be the one further away. Usually.
Things that are of equal size look larger when they are closer and smaller when they are further away. Our brains expect that when we view a person from an angle the eye further away from us will appear smaller than the eye closer to us. If, by turning your subject's head, you can only create enough difference in distance to make them both the same size in terms of their width on the sensor, the viewers brain will still see that there is something odd going on.
By keeping the smaller eye further from the camera and the larger eye closer to the camera it satisfies the viewer's expectation that the nearer object will appear larger than the more distant one.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
11y ago
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Generally, the smaller eye should be turned away from the camera and the larger eye should be closer.
The reason is perspective: features that are farther from the camera appear slightly smaller, and features that are closer appear slightly larger. When a face is turned, viewers already expect the far eye to look a bit smaller than the near eye. Putting the naturally smaller eye on the far side and the larger eye on the near side works with that expectation and usually looks more natural.
If you try to do the opposite, you may be fighting perspective, and even if the two eyes measure similarly in the photo, the result can still feel odd because the apparent size relationship doesn’t match what the viewer expects from a face turned in space.
So, as a rule of thumb: turn the subject so the smaller eye is farther from the lens and the larger eye is nearer.
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