How To Avoid Red-Eye

Red-eye happens when the light from the built in flash of your digital camera reflects off your subjects retina. Because your digital cameras flash is so close to the lens the line the light takes to and from the eye is almost a straight line. Because of this direct path and the reflectivity of the retina the light inherits the red color of the blood vessels in your subjects eyes. The results are the distinctive red glow we see in so my of our compact digital camera photos.

Because the flash is so close to the lens that when someone is looking into the flash they are also looking directly into the flash. In essence their eyes are picking up and reflecting all the flash from the camera. It’s for this reason that many people purchase external flash units so they can position the light further off center and all but eliminate any red-eye. Well that may be fine IF you want to go through all the trouble but what about the rest of us who are basically shooting from the hip and don’t want to bother with auxiliary flash units?