Tag: fix red eye
Get the Red Out–What to do about Red Eye?
by admin on Jun.10, 2009, under Digital Camera Basics, Helpful Stuff, Photo Editing
Do the people in your photos have red eyes?
Do you know why? How do you avoid red eyes?
How do you get rid of red eyes in your photos?
I don’t normally have the red eye problem when I take flash photos. So, when I received this photo of the winner of our Rotary Fund Raiser Raffle winner (he won the scooter) it occurred to me that many amateur photographers have spooky red eyes in their photos. So, let’s me try to answer the questions. If your photos don’t have the problem you can probably skip this post and go on to something more exciting. If you do you should continue reading.
Red Eye is a reflection of the flash off the retina of the eye
Do you know why? How do you avoid red eyes?
The red color comes from the light that reflects off the retinas in our eyes. When taking flash pictures of humans (animals have a different effect) the flash is so bright that it causes a reflection off the retina–what you see is the red color from the blood vessels (yuk) nourishing the eye. (For more information on red eye causes go to www.howstuffworks.com/question51.htm)
The easiest way to avoid red eye is to use the “red eye reduction” feature on your camera. I keep this feature turned on in my Canon camera. With this feature turned on the camera flash goes off twice. The first flash causes the subjects pupils to contract, reducing the red eye significantly. If you don’t have this feature you can turn on all the lights in the room, which also contracts the pupil. However, in cases like the scooter picture this is not possible so, if your camera doesn’t have the red eye reduction feature you are probably out of luck. If you have a camera that has a “hot shoe” for an external flash attachment you can point the flash away from the subject (i.e. bounce the flash off the ceiling) you will also avoid the red eye problem. If I am shooting indoors I almost always use my flash attachment instead of the built in flash in the camera. The best way to “fix” red eye is to avoid the problem in the first place. But, if your camera doesn’t have the feature or (which often happens) you forget to turn it on, what do you do?
How do you get rid of red eyes in your photos?
Red Eye Can Be Fixed CorrectPhoto Editor
There are a number of ways of fixing the red eye. Some photo printing services claim to be able to eliminate the red eye before making prints. I don’t have experience with these services so I can’t say how well they work. I prefer to be “in charge” and would use a photo editing program to eliminate the red eye. Here again there are many different approaches and since I only use CorrectPhoto and Photoshop Elements for photo editing I will discuss these two options. CorrectPhoto’s Red Eye reduction feature is a direct interaction whereby the user positions a variable size cursor over the red eye and when in position clicks the mouse to activate the red eye reduction technology.
CorrectPhoto Red Eye Reduction Feature
Before correcting the red eye I did use the OneClick color correction feature of CorrectPhoto to correct the color. The red eye does take a little time to position the curser, but the results are very good.
Photoshop Elements has an Auto Red Eye feature that worked on one eye, but not the other. It is not clear why that occurred. In order to activate the Auto Red Eye (I am using Elements 6.0) I had to first use the Auto Color feature. If the Auto Red Eye would have worked on both eyes it would have been faster than CorrectPhoto, however, the Auto Color feature seemed to distort the color of the photo as it tried to enhance the very dark background. It may be that this particular image didn’t lend itself to the Elements correction and it may work much better on photos where the background is brighter. Here is the Photoshop Elements corrected photos.
Photoshop Elements Red Eye Correction worked on one eye
In summary, the best way to avoid the red eye problem is to turn on the Red Eye Reduction Feature in your digital camera. If you forget use a photo editor to get rid of it before you send the photo to someone or get prints made. If you know of other ways to eliminate red eye please add a comment. If anyone knows why Elements Auto Red Eye worked on one eye and not the other let me know.
