Unfortunately, most point-and-shoot cameras produce the dreaded red-eye effect when they're used to snap portraits in low light.Ī quick anatomy lesson can help you understand why it happens. Let's say you're photographing your sister Molly at a Saturday-night party. In a dark room, the pupils of Molly's eyes open up to let more light in, which helps her see better. When the camera flashes, her eyes react, but her pupils can't contract quickly enough to beat the sudden, intense illumination. Some of that light (the same light that reveals your sister's goofy smile) passes through her pupils and strikes the part of her eyes called the choroid at the back. The choroid comes equipped with a generous supply of blood vessels, which help nourish the retina. When light strikes the reddish tissue, all wavelengths get absorbed except red, which gets reflected. The reflected red light emerges from Molly's eyes and comes straight back to your camera, transforming your sister into Beelzebub. Some cameras try to reduce red-eye by triggering a double flash. The first flash causes the subject's pupils to contract before the second, image-producing flash fires. If your camera doesn't come with this feature, you can still reduce the red-eye effect by adopting a few simple techniques. For example, some point-and-shoots allow you to dial down the flash intensity by one or two increments. You can also turn on some lamps in the room where you're shooting. In the ambient light, your subject's eyes won't react as strongly to the flash. Finally, try shooting your subject from the side. This prevents the red-shifted light from bouncing straight back to your camera lens.Įven with all of those precautions, you'll eventually produce a photo in which the subject's eyes glow like a fireplace ember. Luckily, there's still hope for these marred masterpieces, and it comes in the form of photo editing software. Just like cameras, apps that allow you to manipulate, enhance and tweak images in your digital library can vary significantly in features and price. Adobe Photoshop, the mainstay in the category, can run you $600 or more for a non-upgrade, non-educational license. Online photo editor pixlr editor autodesk pixlr Pc#Īnd it will require a decked-out Mac or PC to run it efficiently. Lower-cost alternatives do exist, including apps that will run on your smartphone or tablet. They won't deliver everything that Photoshop does, but they can help you tackle your red-eye issues in, well, the blink of an eye.įirst, from within Photoshop, open the file that needs editing. For this tutorial, make sure the subject in the photo has feral eyes, like the one pictured. Before you do anything else, duplicate your original layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer) so you're working on a copy of the image. If you need to, increase the zoom level so you can get a really good look at the eyes. Next, from the tools palette, select the red-eye tool, which is arranged with the other healing tools, such as the spot healing tool, the healing brush tool and the patch tool. Online photo editor pixlr editor autodesk pixlr Patch# It literally looks like a red-eye, and if you mouse over it, it should say "RedEye Removal Tool" or something similar. Notice that the red-eye tool comes with its own specific controls - one for pupil size and one for darken amount. The default setting is 50 percent for both controls. We're going to use the default settings at first to see what kind of results we get. Once you select the red-eye tool, the normal cursor will be joined by an eyeball icon. Using the mouse, move the eyeball cursor into your photo and click and drag a box (or marquee) around one of the red eyes. Make sure your box extends far beyond the eye itself. As soon as you've drawn a box around the eye, unclick. Each time you marquee around an eye, you should see the red pupil darken automatically. In the second example photo, we've used the red-eye tool on both eyes, and the results are pretty good. Sometimes, the red-eye tool doesn't correct the entire pupil. In that case, you may need to fiddle with the pupil size value until you get satisfactory results, perhaps even upping it to its maximum of 100 percent. We have a few more Photoshop tricks up our sleeve next. Now, increase the zoom level so you can get a good look at your subject's eyes. In the tools palette, select the brush tool and make sure the hardness - one of the brush tool's settings - is set to 100 percent. Online photo editor pixlr editor autodesk pixlr Pc#Īlso, make sure your foreground color is set to black.Online photo editor pixlr editor autodesk pixlr Patch#.
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