hey guys,
i've been having a slight issue with my flash effecting a photo, i have a pug and i love taking snaps of him but the flash hits his eye making a blue circle in them, its totally obvious and rather difficult to edit out. i can only use flash as natural light usually makes my photos look dull, and less detailed as they should be! even in editing them they look rather bad. So anyone have any advice?
Beth.
That's their equivalent of red-eye. I have had some luck with shooting my dogs with a flash when bounding it upward. I see you have a point and shoot camera, so I am not sure what you can do to prevent it while taking the shot with a flash. If you use picnik, there is actually a redeye removal and you pick people or pets - it's set up to find the blue/green/yellow in animals I suppose. :) Good luck, hopefully someone will be able to help you with bouncing a flash using your camera.
The old red eye hey... except in different animals it comes back as a different colour.
The reason why you are getting it is because you are shooting flash directy into the eyes from the same focal point of the lens. If you moved your flash off to the left or right about a foot or more it will go away.
Now your problem is that you flash is built into your camera.... What you have to do is try and bounce the light off something and back onto your subject. For example you can put a bit of cardboard with some tin foil on it, in front of your flash so that it bounces the light off the roof, or you can try putting some white printer paper in front of your flash so reduce the spot effect.
You can also get a touch and flash it in the dogs eyes just before you take your photo as this will make his eyes close down and reduce the amount of light that goes in, which will also reduce the amount of light that bounces back.
@sdpace@agima Thankyou so much you two! i wouldve probably been sat here thinking its something with my camera, red eye?! i should of known, well i shall try out your tips tomorrow and post the pics, and again thankyou so much for the help!;D
This is going to sound a little weird, but it's worked for me and my DSLR flash and I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work for a P&S like yours (unless the flash is weaker), but what I've been experimenting with is using a small mirror to reflect the flash at a backwards diagonal (i.e. above your head onto the wall behind you). It's all a matter of anglulation. If you're looking down at the dog, the flash will be reflected onto the ceiling and then back down again and you'll be between it and your subject (eclipsed!). But if you look straight at the dog (at the same level) so that the camera is upright (not pointing downwards) it may work.
Note - the smaller the room and lighter the back wall, the better (because your flash wasn't designed to travel this far).
You can diffuse the light of the flash with tissue wrapping paper. I use the stuff quite often, it's inexpensive and you might have some left over from the Holidays! I've read of people putting scotch tape over the flash to diffuse it also.
With the tissue paper, you'll have to cut a piece out and tape it on to your camera. I found this method effective and well worth the effort.
You can also use a white plastic spoon, put it over your flash and you will have a nice diffusion also.
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(an example of the problem)
The reason why you are getting it is because you are shooting flash directy into the eyes from the same focal point of the lens. If you moved your flash off to the left or right about a foot or more it will go away.
Now your problem is that you flash is built into your camera.... What you have to do is try and bounce the light off something and back onto your subject. For example you can put a bit of cardboard with some tin foil on it, in front of your flash so that it bounces the light off the roof, or you can try putting some white printer paper in front of your flash so reduce the spot effect.
You can also get a touch and flash it in the dogs eyes just before you take your photo as this will make his eyes close down and reduce the amount of light that goes in, which will also reduce the amount of light that bounces back.
Note - the smaller the room and lighter the back wall, the better (because your flash wasn't designed to travel this far).
With the tissue paper, you'll have to cut a piece out and tape it on to your camera. I found this method effective and well worth the effort.
You can also use a white plastic spoon, put it over your flash and you will have a nice diffusion also.
Let us know how it goes!
@agima @lluniau Great Tips you two!