animal photos please help

[marcy55]

i'm a newbie using the s50. i am having a hard time taking fllash pictures of my babies. (dog a cat). there has to be a way to get rid of that awful glare, i've tried using a piece of tissue over the flash. only worked with the dog. cat is a himmi with blue eyes so his glare is white. i'm ruining many awsome shots. any suggestions?

[stardis]

I have an s30 and I know what you are talking about. Sometimes I get lucky and the eyes are perfect, but a lot of shots aren't any good. Some of the pictures I can get rid of red-eye and that's OK, but some are just a horrible glare.

When we have had professional pet photographers take our pets pictures I've noticed that they always try to get the cat to look up or down just a little bit when they snap the shutter. Sometimes it takes three people and the photographer to get the job done though.

I have tried reducing the flash output via the menu and you might experiment with that. Also, try and not use the flash by laying on the floor with the camera steady on something. Otherwise, my experience has been a few really good pictures out of many attempts.

Here is a picture of my Birman cat showing his blue eyes. The picture is not manipulated in any way. Why did his eyes turn out well in this photo?-- I don't know!-- wish I could remember what I did. I may have to find the original and read the EXIF to see what I did. Zephyr (http://pbase.com/image/22168269)

[stduc]

You may care to check this post out. My solutions to red-eye (http://forums.powershot-a.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7113).

I know I'm talking about people, but the principles the
same. Paintshop Pro 8 has an auto animal eye feature as well.

[stopbath]

In the photo of Zephyr (a nice one, he looks like he's just awoke from a dream of laying in the sun...), he has his eye dilated (closed down), the room is very bright, the light source is from behind him, and it seem that the flash did not go off (his nose is in shadow.)

Plus you were quite close.

Do the same shot at night, his eye's would open up, and the flash would go off (stonger) so the chance of red-eye would be much more likely.