why do my pupils look red everytime my picture is taken?

Question

my eyes glow red everytime my picture is taken even if the red eye reduction is on.

Answer 1

The light of the flash occurs too fast for the iris of the eye to close the pupil. Light is focused onto the blood-rich retina at the back of the eye and the image of the illuminated retina is transmitted to the camera resulting in the red appearance of the eye on the photo.
Can be prevented in a number of ways such as utilising red-eye reduction capabilities built into many modern cameras. These precede the flash with a series of short, low-power flashes triggering the iris to contract.

Answer 2

Red eye is due to light bouncing off the cornea. That can be avoided two ways. First of all if you are shooting with red eye reduction on, the camera will shoot a pre-flash. The pre-flash is intended to dilate the pupil. If you aren't getting two flashes when in red eye mode, then it isn't working right. Pros avoid the red eye by having the flash a greater distance from the lens. That way the light does not bounce from the flash, to the cornea, back to the camera. You either need to move the flash up (about 4-6" minimum) or get your red eye flash mode to work properly.

If the person who are shooting has slow pupils the red eye reduction won't work with them.

Fortunately many picture editing packages have easy red-eye elimination. Basically you circle the eye and tell it to remove the red-eye...

Answer 3

Red eyes are mostly prevalent in the photographs that are taken in the night with a flash. The Red color comes from the light that gets reflected from our retinas. In night time, the surroundings are normally dark or dimly lit. And in these conditions, the flash of camera comes as a flood of light for the eyes. The light of the flash occurs so fast that the iris of the eye does not gets enough time to close the pupil. As a result, light is focused onto the retina situated at the back of the eye. Retina is blood rich, because of the blood vessels that nourish the eye. This blood rich retina comes as a Red image, and this is reflected back to the camera. And this results in the Red effect that can be seen in the eyes in the photographs. The more open your pupils are, the more Red effect you get in your photographs.

Answer 4

Hi there

It is caused by light from your flash reflecting off of the blood vessels in the back of the eye. It shouldn't happen when a photo is taken without flash.

A way to stop this happening is to either increase the distance between the flash source and the camera lenses (this is why most flashes for SLR cameras are raised away from the body of the camera) or to bounce the light from a wall or ceiling, etc. Again the flashes for SLRs usually have this facility

Most digital cameras have the flash situated very close to the lens and they try to prevent red eye by firing off a couple of flashes before the picture is taken - the idea being that this will cause the pupil to dilate and reduce the possibility of red eye - in my experience (I am on my 8th digi camera now) it doesn't work too well particularly with very pale eyes.

AJ

Answer 5

The light of the flash occurs too fast for the iris of the eye to close the pupil. Light is focused onto the blood-rich retina at the back of the eye and the image of the illuminated retina is transmitted to the camera resulting in the red appearance of the eye on the photo. (This principle is used in the ophthalmoscope, a device designed to examine the retina.)

The effect is generally more pronounced in people with grey or blue eyes and in children. This is because pale irises have less melanin in them and so allow more light to pass through to the retina. Children, despite superficial appearances, do not have larger pupils but their pupils are more reactive to light and are able to open to the fullest extent in low light conditions.

In many species the tapetum lucidum, a light-reflecting layer behind the retina which improves night vision, intensifies this effect. This leads to variations in the colour of the reflected light from species to species. Cats, for example, display blue, yellow, pink, or green eyes in flash photographs.

Preventing red-eye

1. Using bounce flash in which the flash head is aimed at a nearby pale coloured surface such as a ceiling or wall or at a specialist photographic reflector. This both changes the direction of the flash and ensures that only diffused flash light enters the eye.
2. Placing the flash away from the camera's optical axis ensures that the light from the flash hits the eye at an oblique angle. The light enters the eye in a direction away from the optical axis of the camera and is refocused by the eye lens back along the same axis. Because of this the retina will not be visible to the camera and the eyes will appear natural.
3. Taking pictures without flash by increasing the ambient lighting, opening the lens aperture, using a faster film or detector, or reducing the shutter speed.
4. Using ambient light and then
* digitally post-processing the image to increase its brightness.
* Pushing the film development to increase the apparent film speed
5. Utilising red-eye reduction capabilities built into many modern cameras. These precede the flash with a series of short, low-power flashes triggering the iris to contract.
6. Having the subject not look straight at the camera, instead look at the shoulder of the photographer.
7. Increase the lighting in the room so that the subject's pupils are more constricted.
8. Some computer digital image editors have the ability to lessen the red eye by adding a hint of blue to it.

If direct flash must be used, a good rule of thumb is to separate the flash from the lens by 1/20 of the distance of the camera to the subject. For example, if the subject is 2 metres (6 feet) away, the flash head should be at least 10 cm (4 inches) away from the lens.

Professional photographers prefer to use ambient light or indirect flash as the red-eye reduction system does not always prevent red eyes, for example if people look away during the pre-flash. In any case, people with small pupils do not look natural on photographs. Many people also find the pre-flashes annoying. By coincidence, lighting which produces red-eye effect is also believed to produce very unflattering photographs; hard and flat lighting is considered something to avoid.

Various graphics editing software packages have functions to help remove red eyes from digital photographs although it is usually a multi-step process. More recently a few software packages have made this function a fully automatic process which can be applied to many photos at once. The downside to fully automatic software-based red-eye removal is that it is accurate only about 75% of the time.[citation needed]

If photos or videos are shot with infrared-sensitive equipment, the eyes also usually look unnaturally bright. The reason is the same: the blood-rich retina reflecting light into the camera.

Answer 6

It is the flash picking out the RETINA at the back of your eye. If on Digital photos there is a process on Microsoft picture it 7 to get rid of this red eye.

Answer 7

It is caused by the reflection of light off the blood vessels on the back of your retina. Sometimes the red eye reduction doesn't always work properly, but you can easily use photoshop or any other digital photo editor to get rid of it.

Answer 8

I'm guessing you are like me, have very blue eyes..

i have the same problem some of the times, its just the light reacting with your eyes.. some cameras have trickery built in to stop that

it depends on the angle the pic is taken and also if the flash is used in good lighting when its not always needed.

Answer 9

You need to use the red eye reduction on your camera. Or once u upload a pic on your computer you can take the red eye out!!

Answer 10

"Red eye" happens when the flash reflects directly off the retina. If you don't look directly at the flash, but just slightly off to the side, the reflection won't happen. Rather, the light still reflects but does not go directly into the lens.