[Benji]

Rule # 12. Proper Eye Direction-Generally speaking, in males the eyes should follow the direction of the nose.* For females there should be slightly more whites of the eyes on one side than on the other.*

Rule 12a. The eyes should never be turned so far in their sockets that there is no white area on one side, and you should not shoot into the whites of the eyes.* A slightly higher camera angle will give more whites at the bottom than at the top which is more appealing in images of young females.*

12b. The catchlights from the main light are considered correctly placed when they appear at the eleven o'clock or one o'clock position in both eyes. One catchlight is normally preferred because there is only one sun but two or more is acceptable. One catchlight per eye suggests thoughtfulness; more than one creates a look a merriment. In multiple catchlight images the catchlight from the main light should be the brightest.

In the image below the subject is staring up into space. Some wise sage once said; "The eyes are the windows to the soul."* This is not to say that every image must have the subject looking directly at the lens, but it seems most people like images that the subject is looking at the camera (them) and sales data will bear this out to be true.*

Benji