Red eye in taking photos on lumia 720 with flash

[jebroni jeb]

Hello L720 users do you have any problem regarding this? This is the only thing I complain about the phone.

 

[ShreyansShah]

yes. it does happening. i am finding it with this phone very much. it doesnot happen with my lumia 800, but with 720, it happens most of the times.

 

[hopmedic]

The reason flashes cause red-eye in photography is that the reflection of the light from the flash comes from the back of the eyes - the retina. The retina is rich with blood vessels, and reflects the light as a red color. This is especially evident when the photo is taken under darker conditions, because the pupil will be opened wider, as well as when the flash is close to the camera lens.

Have you ever noticed that professional photographers never use the on-camera flash (the built-in one), and if they have a flash mounted on the camera it is on a bracket? Mounting the flash so that it is several inches or more helps in several ways (in addition to the flash being more powerful than a built-in flash). First, if the flash is mounted higher than the lens, it will cast the shadows downward, and therefore they will not be in the picture. Next the flash being away from the lens gives a different angle of reflection from the eyes, and red-eye is reduced or eliminated.

Have you ever noticed that some cameras have a red-eye reduction mode? When this mode is on, the flash fires one or more times BEFORE the picture is taken, and then again at the same time as the picture is being taken. What this does is causes the pupils of your subjects to close down some in response to the bright light, making the "hole" that the light can go through to get to the retina smaller. This causes the back of the eye to have less of a reflection, giving you less, red-eye, if it doesn't eliminate it altogether.

Red-eye is not something that is limited to the 720, or to camera phones, or even to point and shoot cameras. It happens in DSLRs if the photographer doesn't take steps to minimize or prevent it, as well.

One thing that you could do to reduce it is to make sure the focus assist light is turned on, so that when you half-press the shutter button, the flash comes on for the focus, which will help close down the pupils. Make sure your subjects do not look directly at the flash, as that gives the reflection the best angle to return the greatest amount of light. You could even have them look six inches to one side or the other of the phone - even that little bit will help. Don't take pictures in dark settings (yeah, I know you often can't control that) if possible.

One of the things that manufacturers could do to help reduce red-eye is to mount the flash further from the lens. The problem with this is the size of the phone. If you mount it off to one side or another, it will cast shadows of your subjects off to the other side, behind them, and will be in the picture, which makes for unattractive pictures (this is why most, if not all, flashes are mounted above the lens).

Hope this helps.

 

[Kunal Dudwadkar]

Even i have red eyes on all pictures taken with flash on my Lumia even with the focus assist light on !

 

[hopmedic]

The focus light isn't a cure-all. You still need to take other precautions, and even then, you will not eliminate red-eye in many circumstances. With the understanding from my post above, though, hopefully you'll be able to learn how to minimize it. :wink:

 

[jebroni jeb]

Thanks bro! well explained! appreciated! the only thing I did was 3 meters away from camera to a person it also reduced red eye issue..

 

[hopmedic]

Thanks bro! well explained! appreciated! the only thing I did was 3 meters away from camera to a person it also reduced red eye issue..

Yes, the farther away you are, the less evident the red-eye will be, because there will be less of the light from the flash hitting the back of the eye.