Why Do Camera Flashes Make Your Eyes Turn Red In Photos?

We have all had a picture taken of us where we look like a demon because our eyes are completely red. A lot of the time, this is just a silly thing we can get past, but these red-eyed photos have plagued plenty of people trying to commemorate important moments in their lives, be they weddings, holidays, birthdays, or just a nice family vacation. Nobody wants a picture hanging on their wall that captured a couple’s first dance at their wedding reception where the groom’s eyes look like they’re on fire.

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This is something that occurs with your camera’s flash enabled, whether you’re using a film or digital camera. The reason for these red-eyed pictures is quite simple, but nerdy. If you are using the flash on your camera, chances are that you are in a dark environment, be it inside or outside. To compensate for the darkness, your pupils become dilated, which means that they expand. If someone flashes a bright light in your eyes, your pupils do not have enough time to contract, leaving your retinas and their underlying choroids exposed. The flashing light reflects off your eyes and goes back into the exposed film or the camera’s sensor. The red emerges as a reflection of the blood vessels and choroids’ pigmentation. This is also why you get yellow or white eyes from flash photos of some animals. Photography is all about light, and being able to wield light to get the best picture is an impressive skill. Luckily, there are ways to get around having red eyes in your flash pictures.

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The biggest reason why you keep getting photos of people with red eyes has to do with where exactly your flash is coming from. This reflection from your eyes is so pronounced in these pictures because it is typically a direct line from the flash bulb to the eyes that feeds directly back to the camera sensor. The easiest solution to avoiding or minimizing red-eyed photographs is to have the person in the picture not look directly at the camera. If they do this, the reflection of the light will bounce off in the direction of where their eyes are pointed, rather than directly back to the camera. If you just need them to look directly at the camera, you can adjust the angle of where you have the flash coming from. This can be done with a detachable flash that connects to your camera. That way you can hold it off to the side, and it isn’t flashing right into the person’s eyes.

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There are other methods to curb red eyes that you may or may not have control over. If you are inside, simply making the space brighter works wonders. If people’s pupils are not dilated, then it is a lot tougher for that red reflection to come back at the camera. Lastly, most modern cameras have some sort of anti-red-eye mode. What this does is set off the flash twice. The first flash lets people’s pupils contract, and the photo is taken with the second flash. Enabling this should eliminate red eyes, but of course, not every camera has this function.

If you have adhered to all of the advice above, you could still end up having photos with red eyes. However, not all is lost. There are still ways to remove those red eyes after the fact so you can enjoy your photographs without any worry. Let’s start first with digital cameras. If you have a bunch of red eyes from your DSLR or mirrorless camera, you will need to get yourself some photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, though programs like Apple Photos should be able to do the trick as well. Once you upload your photos into these programs, you should be able to find something called a “Red Eye Tool” that will give you the precise ability to remove these red eyes without altering the rest of your picture.

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Making things even simpler is if you are using a smartphone to take your pictures. Your photos app should have a red eye correction tool that will let you remove these red eyes with just a couple of finger taps. If this does not work, there are third-party apps that you can download that will achieve the same thing.

The most complicated is if you are using actual film to take your photographs. Once you have developed and printed your pictures, there are specially made pens that are designed to remove red eyes from prints. You can take things one step further and scan in your prints or the actual negatives into your computer or smartphone to remove them, just as you would with digitally taken photographs. Thanks to modern technology, red-eyed photographs are not the major problem they used to be.

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