The Evil RED EYE

I seem to get asked at almost every photo shoot or wedding I do..."Do you fix the Red Eye in the pictures"? Well....no, I do not have to fix Red Eye as it has never been in a picture I've taken. Few people understand what Red Eye is and how to avoid it. Red Eye is the end result of amateur equipment being used in a low lit room. In a darkened room, your pupils are dilated (wide open) to let in more light. When the flash goes off the light is reflected off the retina in the eye and that reflection is recorded by the lens. The retina just happens to be red. Hence, Red Eye. The best way to avoid red eye is to raise you flash about a foot or more above the camera lens. In doing this the angle of the flash reflection off the retina does not go directly back into the lens. Flash brackets are available that will raise your flash above the lens. If your flash is built into your camera then you can set your flash to a Red Eye Reduction mode. In this mode the flash fires a few short burst of light to cause your eye pupil to close down. This allows less light in to your retina. The biggest problem with this mode is that the pre-flash usually causes your subject to react and can ruin the image. Today, many of the photo editing programs have a Red Eye fix. I prefer to avoid having to fix every image and just put my flash on a bracket.