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Even red eye reduction fails

26th November - 2001
Answers by: Ian Burley

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From: Alan

I have just bought a Fuji6800 digital camera. Whenever I take a photo using the flash I am getting terrible 'red eye' even with the flash set to red eye reduction.

dp-now.com:

The Fuji 6800, like many other digital and conventional cameras, places the flash very close to the camera lens. This is a perfect recipe for light to be reflected back from the blood red (blood vessels) surface of the retina inside the eye.

Some red-eye reduction systems work better than others

Some red-eye reduction systems work better than others, but few are perfect. Of course you can fix red eye using an image editing program, but to avoid it in the first place, there are three main tips: ensure there is some ambient lighting or a source of light close to the subject that might be in his/her field of view, if not strong enough to illuminate the scene and try to make sure they are looking at it.

This will cause the iris in each eye to close and make the red eye condition go away. Secondly, ask your subject to look away from the camera. Thirdly, but I’m not sure how practical this is with the 6800 as it’s a small camera and has no hot shoe, use an external flash gun.

Try not to use flash

Actually, there is a fourth suggestion, try not to use flash – it’s not easy, but with practice, you will find that there are plenty of situations when the auto flash might want to fire and yet you can shoot great pictures without flash, albeit at a slow shutter speed that requires a steady grip on the camera to avoid camera shake.

Even if the images come out slightly dark and lacking in contrast, some fixing in Photoshop or an equivalent is easier than retouching red eyes.

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