Photographing Glitter Tears

When a client said that she wanted to do a portrait session with glitter tears, I had no idea what she was talking about.

A quick search later, I discovered this was a trend in the social media space. I found dozens of interesting-looking versions of what one might call “glitter tears”. These “tears” include confetti, or actual glitter makeup that is glued onto the face in the shape of tears below the subject’s eyes. They look beautiful for close-up portraits.

So, we planned the shoot and Joann arrived with these gorgeous sparkling eyes, with what looked like a mix of multi-colored confetti.

Here are some edits that I thought exemplify the glitter tears in all their glory!

Unfortunately I can’t say how best to create the tears since I didn’t do them myself, but ask me anything about capturing it and I will answer!

In editing these, I chose to brighten up the glitter around her eyes with a Photoshop “Curves” adjustment mask (in addition to the actual eyes). I used color gels on both sides for most of the shots (blue and pink). One beauty dish camera left, and one large (4 ft) rectangular soft box with grid camera right, slightly behind. I kept the aperture at f/7 minimum, so as not to lose any details of the face.

This was such a fun shoot and I love that she wore glitter heels to match for the full body portraits.

Have you ever done a creative portrait session, as a model or as a photographer? Let me know in a comment!

Feel free to join my Facebook group to ask specific questions as well! https://www.facebook.com/groups/theinspiredcapture