A TechLore "Ask the Experts" Question...

Question:

I am desperate to figure out my stupid camera! I own a Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T1 and Red Eye is driving me crazy. I'm not sure how to control it, I have the red eye reduction but must not have something else set properly.

-submitted by BrookeKristine

Answer:

The cause of red-eye

Red-eye in pictures is caused when the flash from the camera reflects off the subject's eyes back towards the camera lens as the picture is being taken. This is a common phenomenon in consumer digital cameras, and mainly a consequence of the lens being in close proximity to the flash on the camera.

What you can do

In general there a few things that you can do to help alleviate red-eye:

• Look away - Make sure that your subjects are not looking directly at the camera lens. Have them look above it, below it or off to the side.
  
  
• Use the red-eye reduction button - Many cameras, including yours, have a red-eye reduction flash setting which usually looks like a little eyeball and is sometimes combined with the flash icon (lightning bolt). When set, the flash goes off a couple of times quickly before the picture is taken to help reduce their pupil which in turn reduces the amount of red-eye.
  
  
• Don't use the flash - Since the flash is the cause of red-eye, if you don't use the flash, you won't have red-eye. Look for
  other light sources such as sunlight or other indoor lighting to illuminate your picture. Turn off the flash if you don't think you need it. Almost all digital cameras allow you to immediately view the picture that you have taken so experiment first and see if you need the flash.
  
  
• Move away - The further away you are from your subject, the less red-eye will show up in pictures.
  
  
• Buy a separate or external flash - Ever wonder why professional photographers carry that external flash in their other hand when they take pictures? Well, now you know one reason. When the flash is away from the lens of the camera, it cannot reflect back into the lens, thus eliminating red-eye. However, for compact cameras, it obviously isn't practical to carry around another piece of equipment.
  

Getting the red-eye out

So, you've taken all of these pictures with red-eye in them, and now what do you do? Well, luckily there are several software packages available to remove red-eye from your pictures after the fact and many of the basic ones are even free.

On the free side, try out Picasa 2 for simple image manipulation. On the high-end, if you are doing a lot of photo manipulation, I would recommend something like Adobe's Adobe's Photoshop CS

Ron Repking - TechLore.com