Avoid Red-Eye in My Photos

Imagine it. After an hour in the mirror, you arrive at the office party looking exceptionally handsome or glamorous. You are so good-looking, in fact, that a coworker scrambles to take your picture. You strike the pose and - SNAP - feeling confident you've taken a great shot. That is, however, until you arrive at the office Monday morning and your coworker shows off the image she took. Suddenly, no one is admiring your chic clothes and perfectly coiffured hair, they're all laughing and calling you "demonic Donna" or "Harold from hell". After seeing your ghoulish image, you slump in your office chair and think, "What causes red-eye anyway?" Well, I'm going to tell you but the answer may surprise you.

What is Red-Eye?

Red-eye is caused when the light leaving the flash unit travels through the eye and hits the back of the retina. Since the retina is filled with blood vessels, a reflection of this blood returns through the pupil and back into the camera as glowing red.

What Causes It?

The simple, scientific reason is that your flash unit is located too close to the camera lens. To ensure its small size, a compact camera's flash window was designed to be located within a inch or two of the lens. Unfortunately, that's a formula for disaster!

How Can I Correct It?

The best answer is to avoid flash altogether by using natural light to expose your photos. This can be accomplished by moving your subjects into daylight outdoors or even indoors using diffused window light. If shooting outdoors, the most soft, flattering light exists near sunset. If you try to shoot outside but it's during hot, daylight hours, move your subjects under an overhang or into the shade. If natural light is not an option and you must use flash indoors, open all window blinds or turn on as many lights as possible. Next, move your subjects closer to the light source. Another suggestion is to move them to any well-lit room nearby. For example, if you're in a dimly-lit, hotel ballroom, move your subjects to the well-lit lobby nearby. Since red-eye worsens with enlarged pupils, the more light that exists, the more it will narrow the pupils and therefore reduce the amount of red being reflected back. This is the science behind your camera's "Red-Eye Reduction" feature that emits small bursts of light to narrow the pupils prior to exposure.

If you're willing to make the investment, purchase a digital SLR with a large accessory flash unit that attaches to a hot shoe on the top of the camera. This design significantly raises the distance of the flash from the lens. However, "pop-up" flashes on digital SLRs remain relatively close to the lens and therefore can still result in red-eye. If any of the above remedies are not feasible, photograph your subjects as close as possible to the camera. Due to the angle of light, it seems the farther away your subjects are from the camera, the worse the red-eye becomes.

Professionals virtually eliminate red-eye by purchasing brackets to mount their camera and flash unit upon. These brackets will place the flash unit significantly higher and away from the lens. After all, it's unprofessional to have red-eye in professional images.