By TOMMY WILLIAMS / L’Observateur / October 19, 1998

At first I had thought last Wednesday’s photo feature of the Ascension of Our Lord P.T.O. Tea Party was a success, but not so, according to Sandy Seal(L’Observateur managing editor). Sandy said she had a ” devil of a time”correcting for the “red eye” effect present in many of the pictures taken that night.

Red eye occurs when photos are taken with the camera’s flash is positioned very close to the lens and at the eye level of the subject being photographed, causing the subject’s eyes to have a bright red appearance in the photo. Red eye isnormally more pronounced if you’re taking photos in low light, such as a dimly lit auditorium or room.

The next question should be, “How can I reduce or eliminate the red eye effect?” For point and shoot camera users, there are two possible solutions that may help reduce red eye.

First, if possible, try to increase the amount of existing light in the area you are taking photos or move the subject to an area where there’s more available light. As the amount of available light decreases the size of the pupils increase(dilate), causing a more pronounced red eye effect. The red color in the eyes arecaused by light reflecting off the red corpuscles in the eye itself. Turning onadditional room lights or moving the subject to a well lit area should help reduce some of the red eye effects.

Secondly, which could also be the first thing you should do, try to purchase a camera with a red eye reducing feature build into the camera. The red eyereducing feature on a camera will fire several small bursts of light from the flash before taking the final picture. It sort of looks like a strobe light in adisco. The smaller bursts of light help reduce the size of the pupil, resulting inless red eye.

Just keep in mind, for point and shoot camera users, that these tips will only help reduce the occurrence of red eye, not eliminate it.

On a better note, although our little angels (children) may act like ” little devils,” the red in their eyes have nothing to do with their behavior.

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