Kia & Boots (Click to enlarge)
Not a speck of red eye in this mother and daughter pair. I like to call this image ‘Four Ears, Three Eyes’. By the way, no Photoshop tricks here. They just like to cuddle like that. For Kia and Boots it’s all about the eyes, so the desired shot would include crystal clear, blue eyes. Wouldn’t this shot be horrific if those lovely blue eyes were demonic red, orange or green?
Free Music Fridays is held on Fridays, at the Mandeville Trailhead, sponsored by the City of Mandeville. It is a well attended and fun event. Sisters Pet Pics photographs the event for the organizers and of course we run into many of our past customers sans pets. I may not remember their names but I do remember their pets! Last evening I had a conversation with a fellow pet photography aficionado about red eye in flash photography. It’s occurred to me that this is an issue many of you experience as you attempt to capture indoor portraits of your own pets.
You need to understand what is happening so you can correct it in a couple of different ways. Here’s the deal, when light enters a human eye at a certain angle it reflects off the retina and the red eye is caused by the color of the blood vessels nourishing the eye, hence the eerie red color. In animals it’s a little more complicated as they have a reflective layer called the tapetum lucidum that acts like a mirror at the backs of their eyes. This layer allows them to see better at night. Okay, biology reference coming: this extra layer contains cells containing rods (ohmygod, my head is exploding into high school biology class blues). Humans have rods too, but not the tapetum lucidum. The structure of the tapetum varies in that it is fibrous (collagenous) rather than cellular. Those rods split the light into various color components.
Okay, I’ve recovered from the biology reference, but from here on it gets dicey-er. There does not seem to be consensus on exactly why one dog, or even one eye on a dog or cat or any animal, may appear white or green or orange. Red is covered – blood. Okay. Easy to understand. But the other colors? Just think prisms, then relax and enjoy the kaleidoscope appearance. However, I’ve heard that white eye in humans is an indication of disease. If you see this you should get the owner of those eyes to a doctor to have their eyes checked immediately…just to be safe. For our photographic discussion, suffice it to say that these eye components in different configurations and degrees handle light in different ways resulting in undesirable images.
Still with me? I didn’t scare you off with all the biology stuff? Good. I’ve mentioned in past posts that I believe that if you follow better pet photography tips and techniques you will improve your life as well as your photography because to be a better photographer you must have an understanding of the living world. So we’ve come back to the avoidance of this eye aberration. It’s really simple. Some cameras have an on-board feature which causes the flash to fire twice, the first time causes the pupil to constrict, thereby reducing the reflection. Not a bad fix, but still not the elimination of it. The best way to avoid this is to use an off camera flash, thereby changing the angle of reflection and eliminating the aberrant eye color. That’s essentially what studio photographers are doing. If you have a strobe or speed light, invest in a cable which will allow you or an assistant to hold the light at a different angle than your camera. While you’re at it purchase an inexpensive flash bracket and you won’t have to hold the light at all. You’ll put an end to this sort of thing all together.
If you don’t have that on-board camera feature and you can’t obtain a bracket or cable then the next best thing is to correct it after the fact. In most post processing programs there is a red eye removal feature. I have not found them to be very effective with animals. I use Photoshop and if you can afford it, get a copy. In my opinion it has no rivals. However, I don’t use the red eye removal feature in Photoshop either. I prefer to desaturate the color, then use the burn tool to darken. If the eye is completely blown out with nothing to darken, then the only fix is to clone someone else’s eye/pupil onto the one you’re working on. Oh yes, I know this is not what any of us want to do, that’s why I highly suggest you invest in some light you can use off camera as that is the best answer to eliminating this dilemma all together.
I welcome discussion on this or any other topic as it pertains to photography or life.
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