is there a certain thing with red eye more likely in certain eye colors?

[bribrius]

i ask because i hardly ever get a red eye problem with anyone. But for some reason, near every time i take a photo of my daughter she has red eye. And the unlikely times like my boys get red eye it is easily corrected in post just by clicking the red eye reduction box. which i hardly have ever had to do. My daughter, i click the box it sometimes just changes one eye, sometimes just turn them both pink. so she cant seem to really be fixed in post. which seems kid of odd to me. Doesn't seem to matter which camera i use either. Any of the three, same thing. i was wondering if eye color is a factor.

 

[runnah]

Direct flash at eye level.

 

[bribrius]

Direct flash at eye level.

so you are telling me she is just the perfect height....................

 

[The_Traveler]

red eye is caused by flash reflecting off teh back of teh eye so it is actually light going through the pupil and bouncing back.
Thus eye color, which is the color of the iris, is irrelevant.

 

[bribrius]

hmm. options ...well. i can lower the flash output. i can use the red eye reduction flash mode. or i can put a piece of tinfoil in front of the flash to try to bounce it off the ceiling. all which i guess kind of work but not really with the effect i want i suppose. or i can make her shorter, shoot above her head, then crop the crap out of the photo....

any recommendations? or something from above for a suggestion? And im still kind of wondering it must just be a thing with her and her particular height making it more prevalent?

im in the middle of easter photos for cards with the kids, and im stuck on her
i have the camera going on a tripod, sitting here. And im a little, well confused why this always seems to happen with her. is it the tripod level?

 

[WayneF]

i ask because i hardly ever get a red eye problem with anyone. But for some reason, near every time i take a photo of my daughter she has red eye. And the unlikely times like my boys get red eye it is easily corrected in post just by clicking the red eye reduction box. which i hardly have ever had to do. My daughter, i click the box it sometimes just changes one eye, sometimes just turn them both pink. so she cant seem to really be fixed in post. which seems kid of odd to me. Doesn't seem to matter which camera i use either. Any of the three, same thing. i was wondering if eye color is a factor.

I don't know about the software problem correcting only one red eye, but red eye is the direct reflection from the eye when the flash and camera lens are very close together, at the same angle to perfectly reflect directly back.

The way you reduce red eye is to move the flash away from the lens. Or have the subject not look directly into the lens.

For example, a little compact camera has maybe 1/2 inch between the flash and the lens. Red eye is pretty much guaranteed (on such tiny cameras).

A larger DSLR camera may have two inches separation from the built in flash. This is better, but still a problem.

The DSL with a larger hot shoe speedlight may have six inches of separation. This is a lot better, but not fail safe.

A rule of thumb for direct flash is that one inch of separation for each foot of distance to the subject is enough angle difference to generally work pretty well. More separation is better. Or bounce flash is much better, very fail safe.

Off camera lighting is much better lighting anyway, and it solves red eye too.

 

[bribrius]

i ask because i hardly ever get a red eye problem with anyone. But for some reason, near every time i take a photo of my daughter she has red eye. And the unlikely times like my boys get red eye it is easily corrected in post just by clicking the red eye reduction box. which i hardly have ever had to do. My daughter, i click the box it sometimes just changes one eye, sometimes just turn them both pink. so she cant seem to really be fixed in post. which seems kid of odd to me. Doesn't seem to matter which camera i use either. Any of the three, same thing. i was wondering if eye color is a factor.

I don't know about the software problem correcting only one red eye, but red eye is the direct reflection from the eye when the flash and camera lens are very close together, at the same angle to perfectly reflect directly back.

The way you reduce red eye is to move the flash away from the lens. Or have the subject not look directly into the lens.

For example, a little compact camera has maybe 1/2 inch between the flash and the lens. Red eye is pretty much guaranteed (on such tiny cameras).

A larger DSLR camera may have two inches separation from the built in flash. This is better, but still a problem.

The DSL with a larger hot shoe speedlight may have six inches of separation. This is a lot better, but not fail safe.

A rule of thumb for direct flash is that one inch of separation for each foot of distance to the subject is enough angle difference to generally work pretty well. More separation is better. Or bounce flash is much better, very fail safe.

Off camera lighting is much better lighting anyway, and it solves red eye too.

suppose i could move the tripod closer and just go for a head shot... probably still wont work. i think im going to ask her to not look in the lense. there we go.

 

[WayneF]

suppose i could move the tripod closer and just go for a head shot... probably still wont work. i think im going to ask her to not look in the lense. there we go.

No clue what camera and flash we are discussing, but if a speedlight, simply use bounce flash, no red eye, and the lighting will greatly improve your picture too. On camera direct flash is very flat, pretty much worst case of lighting.

Or move the flash off camera into an inexpensive white umbrella, and it will VASTLY improve your picture.

 

[bribrius]

on camera d7100. im going to put the tinfoil back on it and tape another piece to the freaking ceiling. my last tinfoil shot came out a little dark, hence, the tinfoil about to go on the ceiling i think.

 

[Derrel]

Redeye avoidance, as per Herbert Keppler 30-some years ago. He basically stated that each one inch of height of a flash above camera lens axis gives 72 inches of freedom from redeye. So...1" flash height = 72 inches (6 feet, or apprx. 2 meters) of freedom from redeye.

A 4-inch height of the flash gives 24 feet free from redeye.

The above is one of the MAIN reasons for professional using a flash bracket in large-room and in long-throw type situations with on-camera, direct flash: elevating the flash 10 inches above the lens allows flash shots out to 60 feet, without redeye.

With a pop-up flash that's 1.5 inches above the lens, you get about 9 feet of redeye freedom. if you photograph your daughter with a small, compact Point & Shoot that has the flash fairly close to the height of the lens, redeye will be a big issue.

 

[WayneF]

Redeye avoidance, as per Herbert Keppler 30-some years ago. He basically stated that each one inch of height of a flash above camera lens axis gives 72 inches of freedom from redeye. So...1" flash height = 72 inches (6 feet, or apprx. 2 meters) of freedom from redeye.

A 4-inch height of the flash gives 24 feet free from redeye.

I remember Keppler, but that sounds like wishful thinking. Situations differ, but it is certainly not a bet that I would take (if I reasonably wanted to prevent it).

Wikipedia says a separation of 1/20, or that 4 inches gives six feet.

A SB-800 on a DSLR is 7 inches on centers, or 5 inches absolute minimum separation, and a bet on 24 feet seems no sure thing.

 

[bribrius]

eight feet away with the 7100 red eye. And for the record the 7100 gave me more red eye than the bridge camera. im guessing brighter flash...

 

[WayneF]

eight feet away with the 7100 red eye. And for the record the 7100 gave me more red eye than the bridge camera. im guessing brighter flash...

Was that the popup internal flash, or a speedlight? Internal flash is probably near two inches separation. Which just isn't enough. There are ifs and buts though, slight head/eye angles can affect it. Also smaller eye pupil diameter (in a very bright room) can help.

Nikon DSLR have a Red Eye Reduction in the menu for flash sync. Turning it on spends about one second before the shutter flashing the flash a few times, trying to cause the subjects pupil to contract, to be smaller and maybe not reflect as much light back. The delay and flashing is generally not liked.

 

[bribrius]

eight feet away with the 7100 red eye. And for the record the 7100 gave me more red eye than the bridge camera. im guessing brighter flash...

Was that the popup internal flash, or a speedlight? Internal flash is probably near two inches separation. Which just isn't enough.

pop up

 

[Designer]

Are her eyes a different color than the boys'? I've heard that blue eyes are more sensitive to sunlight than brown eyes.

As for a simple fix, train her to look at the BOTTOM of the camera. I suspect that she is looking up towards your face and exposing more of her retina.