I have red eyes, please help!

[nhut-nguyen]

Hello everyone,

 

My set up was 40D + 70-200 f/2.8 IS + EX430 Speedlite mounted on hotshoes

 

The lighting condition was very low, I had to shoot with ISO 1600 @ f/2.8..The

stage was lit with overhead yellow lights and also with two spot lights, each

spot light was about 7 ft above the ground and 70 ft from the stage. Many of my

shots came out with red eyes, I did turn on my red eye reduction on but the

problem still occured. That was my first time shooting with this set up, I've

shot many times with 40D + 24-70 + EX430 without any red eyes. Thank you for

your input, tips and helps

 

Sinh Nhut

[PuppyDigs]

Flash bracket + Off-shoe chord.

[nhut-nguyen]

thank you Puppy Face, do you think the red eye could be caused by the lighting? I thought once I have an external flash, red eyes should not be a problem because the flash is higher. If this keeps on happening everytime, I will get a bracket and off-shoe cord.

[colinsouthern]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eye_effect

[philscbx]

I used to do the same shoots with film, but no flash of the kids dance shows 20 yrs ago.

If your flash killed the stage lighting effects as well, then turn it way down for one.

Catch the dancers without them directly looking into lens.

Time the shot at their slowest movement.

Multiple rapid shots and this will close down their Iris some, but don't blind them to

where they injure themselves.

If more of this event is coming up, try to set up off camera remotes.

70-200 might be too much lens vs a fast prime 135 or similar.

Other than that, Aperture or other software will fix red eye to a needle point.

If you have samples to link, great.

[nhut-nguyen]

thank you everyone for your replies. The truth is my flash did not kills the lighting, and nobody really cares if I did. This was a cultural event that my church has every year to celebrate Vietnamese New Year, all the dancers and singers are close friends and I wasn't a hired photographer, I just shot for fun. What suprised and dissapointed me was that I thought using an external flash would not result in redeyes since the flash is far away from the lens.

[philscbx]

Even with 12" bracket, at say 40 - 100 ft to subject, the flash only moved

an 1" from the lens. Similar to pool bumper shot from 6" vs 8ft. You may still

see red eye at full power.

[nhut-nguyen]

Thank you Phil, yes I did shoot far away, at least 50ft from the subject, I think I'm beginning to understand why I had red eyes. So do you think I should get closer next time? If I get closer I can not get a wide enough shot thought, again thanks for you help. It's 1:35am California time, and I still can't sleep because of this :)

[thomas_hardy1]

I recently took some shots on a cruise ship during one of the nightly shows with low

lighting as you described. I used ISO 400 film, but my lens had an aperture of 1.4. I had

to time the shot when the performers were still.

 

In your situation, the low lights causes pupillary dilation (so the performers can see in the

dark). If you're standing more than a few feet away and then used direct flash you will still

get red eye effect.

 

Depending on the size of the room, you might get away with bouncing the flash, but

then it would take a lot of power.

 

I think I would fix the red eye in Photoshop. It works quite well.

[mark u]

If you wish to avoid redeye, bounce the flash where possible. Otherwise, you have to achieve a sufficient angle between the lens axis and the axis of the flash beam. It's angle, not distance that determines redeye risk. Hence use an offshoe cord, if need be at arm's length, shooting with a telephoto.

[bob_osullivan]

The floods were at a low angle as well and could have contributed, especially if you say the flash did not overpowere the floods.

 

Post a sample so we can have a look see.

[andy_szeto]

All the above advices are good for avoiding red eyes when you take pictures using flash again. But for the pictures you have already taken, there is nothing you can do but to fix it in software.

 

You can use PhotoShop or other softwares that you have to correct that. Since you are using 40D, there should be software that came with your camera. The Zoom Browser EX that should come with your camera works well correcting red eyes.

 

Just bring up the software, select Edit from the left column, then select Edit Image from the drop down menu, and select the Red Eye Correction from the Edit Settings. Click on Finish and a new window appears with your selected image in it. DO NOT USE THE AUTO MODE. Instead use the Manual Mode. Just move the cursor on the eye and you will see a circle on the eye. Just click on the mouse and the red eyes is fixed. It is so simple that I haven't need to look into using PhotoShop to do the fix. Try it and I hope it helps.

[nhut-nguyen]

Hi everyone, thank you for your advice, I will fix one or two of the photos to learn the technique in PS or Zoombrowser EX..the shoot was just for fun, the photos weren't really important (because everyone had their digicam, no photos were lost). Now I know why I had redeyes, this is more important though, thanks again everyone.

 

Sinh Nhut

[jason_hall4]

I did not read all the other post so I may be repeating someone. the low light causes the pupils of the subjects eyes to dilate and that makes them get the red eye affect much more easily. Since you were useing the 70-200 I assume the suject was a good distance away. The red reduction feature of your camera is a silly thing that turns on that little light on the front of your body that is suppose to make the subjects pupils close down to reduce the chance of red eye. therefore it is of no use at a distance and it takes a moment for it work as the subject is suppose to look at it. It is just an issue when shooting people in low light with direct flash.

 

Jason

[alan_myers]

Yes, a flash bracket and off camera shoe cord might help. But, using a longer telephoto setting on your zoom can even defeat that and you'll still get redeye (...in people's eyes, or eyeshine in animals). It's just not always avoidable in situations like this.

 

It's best to learn how to keep it to a minimum *and* how to fix it with software.