How do YOU manage Red Eye problem?

Assume your indoors and not in a controlled continuous light area and require a flash to light the subject. Also assume that flash boincing off the ceiling is not putting out quite enough flash. Also assume you only have 1 high power extneral flash such a s a 580 or 430. I would be shooting speaking engagements, entertainers, commedians etc. NOT models or weedings so having a perfectly lighted iris in the eyes is not important but for professionalism I do not leave red eyes in photos untouched.

How do YOU manage Red Eye?

a. Damn the red eye, shoot away with flash mounted on camera and manage the red Eye in Post Processing in LR3 or
b. Use a backet and flash offset from the camera
c. Use a clip on diffuser of some sort.
d. Mount your flashes on a tripod somewhere else and use a pocket wizard with slave flash somewhere else in the room.
e. Use a bounce flash pointed at a 45 degree angle.
f. Something else that I haven't considered here.

Personally I started off using el-cheapo STRO-FEN diffuser and I realized that all its seems to do is just eat light and make at lof my photos darker than they should be.

I then migrated over to using method A. and then managing the red eye with a program designed for Red Eye called Red Eye Bot.

Finally I started using the Red EYe Tool in Light Room 3. Seems to work OK but it also seems to creat unpleashing iris shapes.

At the last speaking enagement I shot at, the primary photographer set up flashes throughout the room with pocket wizards. It worked out fine for him because he was able to shoot at F/4 and didn't need quite so much help from his flash. I was shooting at a higher F/stop. His pictures came out great but I am not sure if it was more the lens than it was the elaborate remote lighting set up he did.

I've never had a red eye problem with my 430exII but that may be because I never point it at my subject. I always defuse or bounce.

B, C and E for me, depending on situations.

Red eye is caused by the flash hitting the back of the eye, so anything you can do to alter the angle of the light is helpful. I prefer to use some sort of bounce card, rogue flashbender, demb flipit, lumiquest etc so you are bouncing some portion of the light with only part of it kicked forward. This also raises the flash a bit getting it even farther off axis so it helps to cut down on redeye. If all else fails, there are tools to fix redeye.

I have used both A and B from time to time. Outdoors at night is the worst situation for redeye and unless you're pretty close, even a flash bracket won't prevent it.

Thank Goodness for software.

c,d,e 100% of the time for me since I have no bracket.

gonzogolf wrote in post #12603829
Red eye is caused by the flash hitting the back of the eye, so anything you can do to alter the angle of the light is helpful. I prefer to use some sort of bounce card, rogue flashbender, demb flipit, lumiquest etc so you are bouncing some portion of the light with only part of it kicked forward. This also raises the flash a bit getting it even farther off axis so it helps to cut down on redeye. If all else fails, there are tools to fix redeye.

This++

The first thing is to understand exactly what cause red-eye. Think of the retna as a big red mirror about a half inch behind the pupil. Red eye is caused by light from the flash being reflected back at the camera from the red mirror. Simply moving the flash (normally upward) away from the lens so that the red reflected light does not bounce straight back to the lens gets rid of the problem.

There are several ways to do this.
1. Taller flash. The 430 is pretty good (worse the farther away you get) The 580 is better.

2. find a bracket that raises the flash even more.

3. My favorite: a DIY diffuser that both softens the light but also adds another 5 or so inches to your light source. I built one of the ones referenced in the link, but you can even go simpler. I once received a CF card from amazon in a really shinny white bubble wrap packing envelope (which are also very inexpensive at staples). The bubble-wrap offered some stiffness; I was able to cut two slits in it to make tabs which I wrapped around my vertical flash head and held in place with a rubber band. It looks ridiculous but produced lovely lighting.


This was just a silly shot I took of my daughter after she had her face painted. It was done with the bubble wrap diffuser/reflector.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/5​357755770/

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Red eye is a function of the angle between the flash and lens axis. This angle is affected by the distance the flash is offset from the lens axis AND the distance from the subject. For most situations simply having an external flash works. (with icky direct flash) If you move the subject way far away and zoom in with a long tele, the effect of the offset becomes less. (red eye becomes more possible)

Personally i have a home-made foam reflector thingo for close in portraits. My personal shooting style is to get closer rather than farther away from my subjects. Problem is, the bounce card type modifiers as well as bouncing off of the ceiling don't really work at a distance. If you have to be far away, and the setup needs to be self contained, then direct flash may be the only way to go. I saw a guy at a high school graduation with a crazy looking fresnel lens attatchment for his on camera flash. The first thing i thought was 'that thing is designed to produce red-eye.'

Something like this:
http://www.rpphoto.com …nstructions/fx_​attach.asp

Personally I don't get it.

The other alternative is to separate the flash and camera. Does it seem like you're taking photos of performers and speakers on a stage from the back of the space? The solution may be to secret some flashes up front and control them remotely bouncing off of the ceiling/walls.

If I'm in close I'll pin their pupils by hitting the DOF button on the camera. Otherwise, I don't worry about it.