Making/Editing of: Part 2

Family members and close friends volunteered to be photographed for my film. It was in those quiet moments spent with each of them that I began to notice how uniquely beautiful their eyes are, especially within my own family. My uncle and aunt both have hazel green eyes, while their daughter, my cousin, has striking grey-green eyes. The contrast between them was something I grew up admiring.

After each paragraph I will attach pictures of the before and after shots and where each shoot took place

My father was the first to volunteer, he's also my biggest supporter/fan. I waited until the first bloom of spring to begin photographing, hoping for at least two weeks of good weather before the rainy season began. Fortunately, on April 1st, 2025, the sky was mostly clear with plenty of sunshine. I photographed one of my dad's eye in our backyard. I didn't wan't to position him directly under the sun, so we chose a shaded area where the light fell softly on the side of his face. While I took the picture I stood at close proximity to him, which made it hard for my phone to focus on the eye. The photo turned out well, although his eye appeared darker on camera than it is in real life. I used the editing tools in the iPhone Photos app to subtly brighten his eye and bring out it natural detail. There was a slight problem, a part of my dad's eye was reflecting our patio. I used TouchReTouch to erase the reflection and blend the colours to replace the area that was erased.

Later that week, I experimented with photographing my mom's eye indoors using a flashlight instead of natural light. The results were quite different, her eye colour appeared less pigmented, and the skin around her eye looked darker than mine or my dad's, mainly due to the artificial lighting of my flash light and the warm tone indoor lighting. I edited the photo again in the iPhone app to enhance the vibrancy of here eye colour and to lighten the surrounding area.

Fast forward a few weeks to our family vacation in Egypt, where I had the chance to photograph my cousin and uncle. One of the most memorable days was a jeep trip into the desert, where we arrived at a small village with a population of 30 people. As we admired the sunset and sipped on tea, I saw the perfect moment to photograph my cousin which had been waiting the whole trip for me to ask her to be on e of models.

At first I tried capturing her eye inside the tent we sat in, using natural light coming from the entrance, but the photo turned out too dark. So, we stepped outside, and I positioned her directly in front of the setting sun. I learned something important during this shoot: standing about 30 cm away from the model allowed my phone to better focus on the fine details of her eye, something I hadn't done during my first two attempts. We live and we learn.

My uncle, impressed by how my cousin's photo turned out, offered to be next. It became a spontaneous but special moment, each phot capturing not just an eye, but a memory.

A few days after returning from vacation, I went to the Sunday night service. Before that night, I had sent a reminder to 4 friends who were kind enough to meet, after the service. I'm not usually one to brag, but I have to say, my friends have truly beautiful eyes. I photographed them on the church steps, it was a beautiful and graceful evening. Each of them brought something unique to the project, and I felt really grateful for their support and willingness to be part of it.