 Josephine Shryock |
Avoiding light reflection in eyes of pets I have a Kodak CX6330 Zoom Digital Camera. Every flash photo I take of my Chihuahua is un-usable. In every photo her eyes reflect the light and come out as bright, shiny white flash spots. On the occasions that she has red eye, I can correct that, but have found no way to correct the "white flash" eyes. Can somebody help, please?
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Andy |
By "white flash eyes" do you mean the entire iris were white out or just a little spark of light. That little spark of light we usually refer to as 'catch light", which gives life to the subject. If you look at all the fine portraits, you will always see that little spark of catch light in the eyes. Is it possible to upload a sample picture to show us what you mean? Hope this helps.
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Josephine Shryock |
Thanks for responding Andy, but NO her eyes do not have "catch light". Both her eyes look just like the flashing, reflected, white eyes of a deer or other wild animal caught in headlights or with a flash photo. Nobody has been able to offer any help at all. But, if you've ever watched a wildlife special on television and they are photographing wild animals at night and you've seen what their eyes look like under those conditions, that's how my puppy's eyes are all the time using flash.
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Josephine Shryock |
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pcmlphotography.com - Pamela C.M Lammersen Contact Pamela C.M Lammersen Pamela C.M Lammersen's Gallery |
Hello Josephine, Have you experimented with your light source? I mean if it is 'snap shot' sort of photos there may not be too much you can do other than use natural lighting. But if you are trying for 'studio' sort of shots try off camera flash or maybe diffusing the light with a light box to the side if you have one. Sometimes if dogs are developing cataracts this is how they show. Anyway dont be afraid to experiment and good luck. Cute doggie by the way :-) -Pamela
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Josephine Shryock |
Thank you for the response, Pamela. This is quite a problem for me. I only have a Kodak digital camera, and yes, these are just snapshots of the puppy. No cataracts, as she is only 3 years old and in excellent health and recently examined. It's just that her eyes ALWAYS reflect the light just like a deer's eyes in headlights. I am not familiar with a "light box"? I suppose I will simply have to settle for natural-light photos when the weather improves and I can take her outside again. Thanks for your suggestions and the compliment.
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Andy |
I just found out your Kodak CX6330 digital camera is a p&s type camera without a hot shoe or connection for external flash. But this is not totally hopeless to get a better flash shot. I admitted that I have never taken a photo of animal and I don't know if it will solve the "flash eyes" problem if the flash is at a higher angle and on the side. But for portrait and still life subjects I do get good results with a p&s type camera. But you do need some other equipments if you do not already have them. It just happened I have some older equipments I can play with. Here's what I have: a Hama slave unit ($20), a non-dedicated flash (any non-dedicated flash will do; $20-30 used; I have a twenty something years old Metz unit), and a tripod (I used a second one to hold the camera). I mounted the flash on the slave unit, which is screwed on a tripod. I put that about 6 feet away from the subject at a 45 degree angle. The Metz flash came with a diffuser and I mounted that on. Or as someone suggested, you can put a rice paper a few inches in front of the flash to diffuse the light. I mounted my camera on a tripod. After focusing, I use one hand to press the shutter release, and the other hand to hold a business card an inch in front of the camera's internal flash to block the frontal light hitting the subject. You need to make sure the business card does not block the lens and the slave flash did fire. You can get the feedback instantly with your digital camera. If the slave flash is too strong, move it further away. If it's too weak, move it closer. You can also use a big white cardboard to bounce the light back on the shadow side of the subject (have someone hold the cardboard for you). I have a couple light stands to hold the reflector for me so I can operate all these stuff by myself. This is one solution how you can utilize your p&s with some added equipments to achieve studio style photo. Other photographers here may have other suggestions. Hope this helps.
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Kiran Shankar |
I have a simple solution. As you own a digital camera, Try picture editing software which will get rid of the red eye. Try Arcsoft Photo Impression which has a good feature and it only gets rid of red eye without harming anything else in the image..
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Davin Edridge |
Hello All, Red eye in people and the equivilent in animals is caused by the eyes reaction to quick burts of light - in dim lighting conditions (you do not see too much red eye in daylight shots with fill flash used). Regards,
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Kelli Campbell |
I believe that the only way you'll overcome this problem is to stop using the flash when photographing your dog. The part of the eye that is reflecting the light is called the tapetum lucidum, and it actually looks like mother of pearl (I had to dissect a cow eyeball in college). While a human's eyes takes in light once and transmit the image to the brain, these animals' eyes transmit the light back to the retina for low light conditions. All that said, I've never been able to take a picture of my animals without glowing eyes while using the flash, so I have either learned to deal with it or take their pictures without the flash.
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Crystal M. Howard |
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Crystal M. Howard |
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Kerry L. Walker |
There is a simple solution to this problem. Have someone get the dog's attention so that she is not looking directly at the camera. The light won't reflect off the back of the eye and, voila, no red-eye.
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Kerry L. Walker |
Not that much distraction! Just snap your fingers. Don't want to turn her into an attack dog.
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Kelli Campbell |
Or just have them make a strange sound, then the dog will look and sometimes give that quizzical cocked-head look that's always so very cute in pet photos. I found that if I snap or clap, the dog wants to come to me because that's what we normally do to get a dog to come.
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