What causes red-eye in pictures and how can it be reduced or stopped?
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M$4 Answers
The basic way to avoid red eye is to bounce the light from the flash. You need a decent quality external flash, the built in one on cameras just can't do the job. If you are indoors you aim the flash at an angle at the ceiling while aiming the camera at the subject.
Outdoors, or as an option indoors, you can use a bounce screen device on your camera's flash. Some photographers use a diffuser instead of a bounce screen. Others try using a flash on some sort of extension so that it is further away from the camera. I use a bounce screen and it works.
Check out the device that I am sourcing from Amazon, as well as the alternate devices that come up when you look at it.
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
There are two main causes of Red-eye. Red-eye is the reflection from your retina back through the lens to the camera. Its red because of the blood vessels in the eye's retina. The size is related to the amount of pupil dilation. When its dark - our eyes dilate to let as much light through to the retina as possible. So the red effect is quite noticeable - as in the picture above.
The secondary cause of Red-eye is the light from the flash. On most cameras the flash is very close to the lens and directed at the subject. So the light is reflected straight back at the camera and is easily seen.
How to get rid of Red-eye:
Two simple mechanisms.
On cameras with Red-eye reduction capability the flash goes off several times. What this does is forces the subject's pupils to shrink in size to minimize the amount of light coming in - the flash seems so bright but the flashes are short so as not to hurt the subject but still trigger pupil shrinking. This closing of the eye's Iris makes the red-eye effect much smaller because the pupil is almost closed. So it does not remove it completely but it almost disappears.
The second and much preferred mechanism is to move the flash away from the lens and not make it a point of bright light but a diffuse blur of soft light - so the reflected light doesn't come straight back to the camera. In snapshot cameras this is very hard to do as the flash is probably not moveable and might not be able to be switched off. In professional cameras a remote flash can fire to light the subject from more of an angle - which is why you NEVER see Red-eye in professional photos.
However there are two simple ways to do this with regular snapshot style cameras.
1. Add a diffuser to the flash on the camera. A simple piece of white baking paper formed into a cone, taped onto the camera, and directed up at the ceiling will take the direct light from the flash and spread it out so it does not all come from the concentrated source of the flash.
You can often buy a diffuser for many brands of cameras - but making your own is simple even if it looks a little non-professional.
2. block most of the light from the flash by taping over it and buy a remote slave trigger flashgun which will see the flash from your camera and fire off its own much more powerful flash. Which you would position well above or to the side of your camera. Alas these units can be expensive as they are made for professional use. Sometimes kits are available for the home experimenter to assemble.
See link below for many examples of home made flash diffusers. Also two links for a home made slave flash if you want to try an electronic project.
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
