How does one avoid "red eyes" in photos?

Question

I haven't been abe to identify what I am doing wrong to produce photos with "red eyes"

Answer 1

The "red eye" in a photograph is caused first of all by the subject's pupils being dilated at the moment the flash goes off and secondly, by the flash being so close to the lens that when the light strikes the inside of the eye's retina (blood vessels are what makes it red) and then bounces back into the camera, the eyes exhibit the red eye effect.

The solution is moving the flash away from the camera so the reflection of the flash in the retina does not bounce back directly into the camera's lens.

Newer cameras equipped with a flash have a "pre-flash" flash which has the purpose of reducing the dilation of the subject's eyes, and therefore reducing or eliminating the "red eye" once the photograph is taken a second or two later.

Answer 2

Back before you could get a cheap copy of Photoshop and just "fix it later" we used to have to actually learn about how light behaves and use that info to avoid problems since the only way to "fix it later" was retouching, and that in and of itself is an art.

As Gene mentioned it's cause by the reflection of the flash off of the eye's retina. Since your flash is typically very close to your lens, and people have a habit of staring down the barrel of your lens, red eye is a common problem. The solutions were to either change the angle or as Edwin suggested, diffuse the source. 2 ways of changing the angle, the simplest is the "watch the birdie" trick where you have your subject look off to the side. The other way was to get a "T-bar" and mount your flash further to the side of your camera and change the angle of incident.

Answer 3

See if your camera has a red eye reduction feature, this function fires a series of pulses from the flash or emits a bright light to dilate the eyes of your subject(s) before the main flash fires. The angle at which you shoot your subject can also effect red eye. You can also get rid of red eye in photoshop.

Answer 4

Try one of the diffusers offered by Sto-Fen. You can also use a piece of white tissue paper or a piece of thin white cloth over your flash.

Off-camera flash and/or bounce flash will totally eliminate red eye. Bounce flash is also much more flattering and natural.

Solve the problem in-camera whenever possible and spend less time "fixing" your photos.

Answer 5

You can download Adobe Photoshop and remove red eyes by the editing feature.

Answer 6

I used to get that problem until I got a cannon with rappid flash for red eye deduction.