red eye problems

[SKRIZ]

I have a Sony T1 and EVERY pic I take has a huge red eye problem. Even with the red eye reducer feature on. Is this a problem with the camera itslef or is there something I can do about it?

[Poseidon]

Hey Skriz good question! Red eye is caused by the red blood cells on our retinas. Light from the flash enters the pupil, hits the red cells, and reflects back to the image sensor. There are a couple of ways to "reduce" red-eye. First and most effective is to move the flash away from the lens. On a point a shoot camera that is impossible, with the built in flash. Second is to reduce the size of our PUPILS. You can use a flash light to shine at people and close the pupil before you take the picture. (This WILL NOT make you very popular.) Third is to increase the ISO settings of the camera so you don't have to use flash. This may or may not be practical though. Fourth way is to remove it in PhotoShop!

My favorite way is to use an External flash, and bounce it from the ceiling, or use a flash diffuser if I can't bounce it. Try this, make a simple diffuser out of a piece of paper. Maybe you could make a small paper dome over the flash and tape it in place. I know it would look funky, but it may help, and the diffused flash will give a very nice look. I wish I could give you a sure fire cure, but Red-Eye is a fact of life with P&S cameras.

[Reefland]

That is cool, I had no idea that was the cause of red-eye. I thought it was just a flash reflection from the eyes; never knew anything about the red blood cells. Too cool!

Anyhow, don't most (if not all) photo editing software have a red-eye remover?

[yankeebobo]

Paint Shop Pro has it, Photoshop has it. I know I use PSP and it has a nice one - just purchased X for the laptop (can't for the life of me get the damn thing to run on the desktop though).

They do come in handy - some are more involved than others.

[Reefland]

I rarely take picture of people with our new camera but I know the Nikon photo editor has it. for my picture/image editing I use Fireworks.

[yankeebobo]

I forgot - Nikon too. Scott - what do you have? I got the D70 last year. What a gem.

[Reefland]

We have a Nikon 5400 that is very nice. Much more than I'll ever use or understand.

[gho]

Good luck using an external flash on a T1. Even with a digislave, the flash would be bigger than the camera ;)

As Poseidon stated, the red-eye is caused by the angle of incidence. The proximity of the flash to the lense makes this angle very small and light is bounces back directly into the lense. Think of it this way - if you shoot a wall, and stand exactly perpendicular to it, you'll get hit by the ricochet.

Same thing with the flash and eyes - easy solution, have the subject face the camera (if that's what you want), but not look at the camera, look to the side or something - that way, they won't get blinded by the flash either. It works even better if they look at some kind of point light source like a lamp or something.

[gho]

BTW, I usually don't get red-eye with my shots - I do get it occasionally, but it's really rare. T1 shot, no red eye reduction thingy:

[BubbaWPB]

I use PaintShopPro (ver. 9)... it has a nice red eye tool that I have even used on the fish.. look closely at the female's eyes....