Red Eye

It happens all the time. What should have been a perfect portrait is ruined by tiny pinpoints of red light in the pupils of a subject’s eyes.

The effect is called "red eye" and it’s caused by on-camera flash. The light from the flash goes through the lens of the human eye and bounces off the retina, which is red. If the flash and the camera lens are not far enough apart, and the subject is looking directly at the camera, the result is a perfect red image of the retinas of the subject’s eyes.

It’s easy to avoid "red eye." One way is to have your subjects look to one side or the other of the camera. If you are photographing more than one person, you might have them look at one another.

This technique also helps reduce glare from glasses and even from shiny foreheads, which sometimes act as mirrors for the flash.

If your flash has a tilting head, you can avoid both red eye and glare spots by bouncing the light off the ceiling or wall. You can also take the flash unit off the camera to do this with system cords. This bounce-light effect produces a soft lighting that many photographers find particularly suited to portraits. Not all flashes have this availability.