How to Photograph With Glitter

Glitter always sounds conceptually fun, doesn't it? The word "glitter" immediately brings out visualizations of outlandish Disney characters throwing fairy dust into the air! Just me? Fine, just me.

Glitter in photography is conceptually fun, but fact is that it be quite challenging to work with. I'm not sure how those Disney characters pull it off so seamlessly. No matter how careful you are, sometimes glitter just doesn't show up in your photographs as shiny as it looks to the naked eye.

Here in this video, Photographer Irene Rudnyk shares some tips and tricks on how she goes about achieving the sparkle in her photos. This ranges from how the glitter should be applied in terms of make up as well as how she lights her model. She demonstrates how glitter loses its shine in soft natural light compared to when a phone flash light is shone directly on it, explaining that the glitter needs harsh directional light. That led her to using small LEDs to be the harsh directional light needed to bring out the sparkling glitter on her model's face. It's a really simple and helpful walkthrough on how you can get glitter to work for you.

She also mentions that shooting with a wide open aperture helps to achieve the blurry and sparkly effect. Watch the video and you'll be shooting magical glittery photographs in no time.