How to Reduce Red Eye in Photos

Great pictures can be ruined when your subjects' eyes glow red. The common problem of red eye in photos can be frustrating, but luckily red eye is easy to reduce. Caused by the angle of light reflecting off blood vessels in the eye, red eye can be greatly reduced without any fancy photography equipment.

Things You'll Need

• Camera with flash functions menu

Instructions

1. Increase light in the room. Open windows, turn on lamps and make your interior spaces as bright as possible. Take pictures in the brighter rooms of the house. The brighter the area where you are taking pictures, the less likely you are to get red eye in your photos.

2. Walk closer to your subject. Don’t rely on the zoom feature of your camera so much. As you zoom the lens, the angle between your flash and the lens gets closer, making it more likely for your subject to get red eye. If you want a close-up photo, physically move yourself closer to the subject.

3. Turn off your flash. Red eye can’t happen without the use of your flash. When shooting indoors, in a bright environment, you usually don’t need a flash anyway. Some camera flash modes will tell your camera to set the flash off every time. Turn off this feature and try natural light photos in brightly lit indoor locations.

4. Go outside to take pictures. Use natural light to illuminate your photos. Sunlight and daylight will not cause red eye in photos. Take pictures in the shade so your subject isn’t squinting into the sun.

5. Turn your subjects to the side a little bit. Eyes at an angle are less likely to reflect a flash. Subjects looking straight on into the camera are more likely to get red eye. Take pictures while people are busy and not looking directly into the camera. The informal posture will help reduce red eye.

Tips & Warnings

• If you do end up with red eye in your photos, it can be easily removed. Digital photos can be retouched on the computer with photo editing software. Film photos or photos already printed out can be touched up with a special red eye reduction pen. The pale blue ink counteracts the red, making the eye darker.

• Red eye in pictures of humans is different than pet eye. Pet eyes tend to glow white, light blue or transparent. Since their eyes are different than humans, these techniques won’t necessarily work on pet pictures.