You've maybe had this nightmare scenario happen to you: you capture that precious moment with your 5 year old and can't wait to show off the darling one latest adorable expression, only to find that the child peering back at you from the photo appears to be demon possessed, sporting red eyes that dominate the picture. You're just sure he's actually okay, I mean you go to church and all. This unsettling malady, known in photo circles as red eye, (a technical term!) is caused by the light from your camera's flash bouncing off the retina in the back of the eye, usually caused in low light conditions, just when you needed that flash to illuminate things.
Ironically, red eye is getting more prevalent as digital cameras have surged into mainstream popularity. Since these gizmos are growing ever smaller, the Flash on a digital camera is located very near the lens, and the flash shoots directly into the iris and reflects back into the camera, causing that terrible red eye we're always so upset to see. Even the red eye reduction features that most digital cameras come standard with, which produces a pre-flash just before the picture is exposed, (always wondered why that was, didn't you!) offers little help in reducing this problem. This very seldom actually works, and you're still left with that awful red eye, staring back at you!
Since most digital cameras don't offer or accommodate any other lighting sources other than the flash, the only solution left for most of us is to fix it after the fact, and the best tool to do that by a long shot is Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop makes quick work of red eye, and if you've heard that learning Photoshop is a bear, I'm here to tell you that with a little targeted instruction, you can be using Photoshop to not only eliminate those evil eyes from your family photos, but also to benefit from all the other amazing benefits this incredible software has to offer.
Don't let those photos sit there when you can fix them fast with Adobe Photoshop!
