At one time or another, every photographer had made pictures where the subject suffered from "Red Eye." You know what I’m talking about; all those picture in which the people’s eyes glowed a bright, fiery red; liked they were possessed by the devil him self. There is only one situation where "Red Eye" may be a welcomed addition to a photo and that when you’re shooting Halloween pictures and your subject is dressed up as the Devil or some other demon possessed character. Other than that situation, red eye is the bane of every photographer.
Back in the days when we all shot film, red eye was especially problematic because we never knew whether our pictures suffered from red eye or not until we got the film back from the processing lab. The true photographers, not the typical snapshot takers, learned the causes of red eye and took precautions to avoid making pictures in which the subject developed those glowing red eyes that made them appear to be possessed. Today, in the digital world, we can catch it in "Preview" and re-shooting the picture or remove the red eye during post-processing but the best method is to avoid it in the first place. I’m a firm believer in being proactive instead of being reactive, reactive being reliant on removing red eye with my digital darkroom programs.
Before I link you to video tutorials on how to remove red eye using four popular editing programs, Adobe PhotoShop Elements, Adobe PhotoShop CS, Corel Paint Shop Pro X, and Google Picasa 2, I want to discuss some proactive steps photographers can take to avoid getting red eye in the first place.
The first step in being proactive is to have a good understanding of the problem and what causes it in the first place. Red Eye is caused when the intense light from your camera’s flash entering the eye through the dilated pupil is reflected back to the camera’s lens off the eye’s red colored retina. Thus Red Eye is at its worse when shooting under very dim light because the pupil has dilated to it largest size.
Proactively there are some things that you can do to avoid getting red eye in your photos.
ï‚· Most modern digital cameras, point and shoot Digital’s as well as DSLRs (Digital Signal Lens Reflex) cameras have a built in Red Eye Reduction feature. In effect, this feature flashes an intense light into the eyes of the subject several times in rapid succession before the actual flash fires to capture the picture. These intense flashes of light causes the subject’s pupils to contract making it harder for light to enter them and reflected back to the lens off the eye’s red colored retina. When using this feature the subject must be looking directly into the camera’s lens for it to work properly.
ï‚· If you are shooting indoors, turn on as many light as possible so the eye’s pupil doesn’t become as dilated to start with. Increasing the natural ambient light along with using the camera’s Red Eye Reduction features will go a long way toward eliminating the Red Eye problem proactively
ï‚· Reduce the sharpness of the flash by employing a diffuser. If your flash unit doesn’t have a diffuser feature, such as would be the case with a pop up flash unit, place a piece of tissue over the flash. The tissue will serve nicely as a diffuser in any emergency.
ï‚· Reduce or eliminate red eye by employing bounce flash. Swivel the flash head upward so the light reaches your subject(s) by being reflected off the ceiling or off a nearby wall. One thing to keep in mind when using a flash diffuser or when employing bounce flash is that the effective range of the flash unit is reduced. Of course, if your camera’s flash is a true TTL (Through the Lens) flash unit the camera’s on-board computer will select the proper shutter speed and lens aperture to give you the proper exposed based upon the reflected light from your subject(s).
ï‚· If your camera doesn’t have a built in Red Eye Reduction feature and you have no way to diffuse the light emitted by the camera flash, take several pictures as quickly as possible, the first flash will cause the subject’s pupil to contract and the second or third shot should be red eye free.
ï‚· A simple way to reduce or even eliminate red eye is to simply ask your subject(s) to not look directly into the camera lens.
ï‚· Avoid, if possible, shooting under low light conditions.
Before moving on to using software to remove red eye, I want to mention that red eye is only a problem with people. It’s still a problem for pet photographer but instead of appearing as red eye, it appears as Blue, Green, or even Yellow Eye. The reason for this shift in color is a layer of tissue in front of the retina called tapetal pigmentation. The actual color-Blue, Green, or Yellow-depends on the angle at which the light strikes the tapetal pigmentation layer.
OK, here are links to the video tutorials
Adobe PhotoShop CS
http://www.imageeditingsecrets.com/course/3/3CS/
Adobe PhotoShop Elements
http://www.imageeditingsecrets.com/course/3/3Elements/
Corel Paint Shop Pro X
http://www.imageeditingsecrets.com/course/3/3PSP/
Picasa
http://www.imageeditingsecrets.com/course/3/3Picasa/
