Ahh, the gross red-eye...we've all seen it. You snap a photo of friends at night and they have red eyes. How does this happen?

A quick biology lesson

Red eyes are worst in dark rooms. The pupils of your eyes get bigger and smaller depending on the amount of light. Lots of light makes them smaller. Low light makes pupils bigger. When you use the flash on your camera, the light reflects off the blood vessels inside the eye. That's where the red comes from.

Quick tips

There are things you can do stop red eye. Some work better than others, but try them to find which works best for you.

* Use the camera's "red-eye reduction" feature. It's the one that has a circle-slash over an eyeball. It creates quick bursts of light that make the pupil get smaller before the main flash goes off. This is often a big help, but it doesn't remove red eye...it just makes it less obvious. Be careful: in some cameras, using this option can slow down the camera's ability to take the picture when you want it.
* Turn on a light or move to a brighter area. The pupils become smaller and red-eye is less noticeable.
* Have the person look away from the lens, either above the camera or to the side opposite the flash. If you have a camera without the red-eye feature, consider holding the camera straight up and down (vertically) in a way that places the flash closer to your feet than to your hair. The puts the flash at a lower angle and makes red-eye go away.

Sometimes, even trying all of these things, a photo will still have red eye. Fortunately, Adobe® Photoshop® Elements includes tools that remove red eye and make the picture the way you want it.

From Adobe.com

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