In your experience, what's the best way to avoid camera 'red eye?'?

Answer 1

This is why professional photographers have their flash mounted on a bracket above the lens. (Well, that and shadow control!)

You might try a diffuser. Tape a small piece of paper , coffee filter, or tissue on the flash. This will cut down your exposure, so you might need to get closer or plus your flash compensation.

The red eye reduction feature may help sometimes. Turning on room lights, having the subject look away from the lens, etc etc. Personally, I would just fix the red eye in post processing. If you're using film, there is a red eye pen available. You just dot the red on the print, and the cyan dye "cancels" the red. This will not work on an ink jet or dye-sub print, though, only the silver prints made in actual chemistry.

Answer 2

As many people have already said, using a flash that's mounted away from the camera will often solve this problem. Now that's easily done if you have an SLR with a hot shoe to which you can connect an external flashgun, but what if you have a compact camera?

One possibility is to use a flashgun connected to a slave unit, which you can get for around £20. The slave unit has its own 'eye' which looks out for the flash from your camera, and immediately causes the attached external flashgun to fire. For best results, put the external flashgun to the side of the subject, and ideally reflect it off a white surface. You may have a problem with exposure, since your compact automatic camera is too smart for its own good: it calculates the exposure needed for its own flash, but doesn't realise that there's another, bigger flashgun next to it; thus, you often get an overexposed photograph. Therefore, you will need to use your camera's exposure compensation function to tell your camera to underexpose, in order to get a correctly exposed photograph. It takes a lot of experimentation.

(By the way, the camera's red-eye reduction feature is easy to use, but it results in people having small pupils, which makes them look less attractive. And some may say the use of image editing software to get rid of red eyes is cheating.)

Answer 3

As has been suggested one way is to look away from the camera, this can add an air of mystery to the photo.

Another idea is to use a remote flash, the near perfect 180º return path between the flash and the lens on small modern cameras increases the chance of red eye. The further the flash is from the lens, the less likely the shot will have red eye.

Answer 4

Red eye is caused by reflections of the retna in the eye. Several methods can be used to stop it, but most "functions" of cameras use algorithms and mathematics to estimate what needs to happen to reduce it, so does not solve it.

The best method to avoid red eye is to think about lighting. Either the subject needs to wear some kind of eye protection to stop the flash reflecting in the eyes, or the subject needs to not look at the camera.

Turning off the flash and using a well-lit room also helps eliminate red eye no end.

Answer 5

Use a Fuji Finepix F31fd, F30, F11 or similar and select the Natural Light mode. No flash = no red eye. The "ISO" mode on the recent Sony Cyber-shot models works well too.

Most cameras from other brands aren't so capable yet, though high-sensitivity and anti-shake - the two main technologies that make good "natural/available light" photography possible - are now finally becoming recognised as important features of a good digital camera.

Answer 6

I don't know how to avoid red-eye, it's easier just to remove it afterwards on a computer (assuming you're using a digital camera).
I have some software called ArcSoft PhotoImpression - it removes red eye very well (about the only thing it does well, though). However I don't actually know how it got on my computer, probably from a software CD with a printer or camera, so I couldn't tell you how to get that particular software.

Answer 7

Use a red eye setting.

Don't shoot straight on to the faces.

Best way, however is a side flash instead of the camera flash.

Answer 8

get a camera that gives the pre flash for red eye reduction, the red color is actually the back of your eye, your pupil dose not have time to contract with the single flash of a normal camera so you see the retina in the photo

Answer 9

The best way is don't use a flash! Failing that, an angled flash or one that's mounted some way away from the camera lens.

Answer 10

Do not look directly into the camera. Red eye is caused when the flash goes directly into your pupil and hits the retina and reflects back. As light can only travel in straight lines, this shouldnt happen (technically) if you are have a slightly cocked head.