I love to take snapshots of my pets and I often need a flash. Even when I use a redeye flash I usually get glowing eyes. Although I can often fix redeyes in humans, I cannot seem to create realistic non-glowing eyes in my pets. I the problem is primarily that if I just paint the pupils black there's no depth or reflection like there would naturally be, but when I try to paint in reflections, etc, it looks even stupider. A secondary, but less troublesome, problem is that the glowing pupils often bleed blueish glow into the rest of the eye.
Does anyone have a technique that works for fixing this problem?
I would recommend buying a flash instead of relying on the on-camera flash. On-camera flashes are infamous for this (the flash is too close to the lens). You should be able to buy a decent one for your hotshoe for not too much money.
The flash on my SLR isn't really what I'm talking about (although I DO need to get a flash for that, too) - I'm mainly talking about my P&S, which is generally sitting on the coffee table for moments like: "Look, the cat is actually laying on the dog like he's a cat bed... quick, take a picture before he stands up." I don't have time to turn on other lights or hook up an external flash (and I can't aim the flash differently). Basically, I'm hoping for a PS-esque editing fix to this problem.
Try selecting around the pupil, then convert to monochrome (Black & White). This way, you get rid of the red but keep the catchlights. Not sure how it looks on animal eyes, you may have to play with levels or curves.
Thanks for the suggestions... It looks like, since getting a different flash is not an option here, no one really has any better solution than what I've already been doing (painting the eye black and then trying to manually add reflections). Bummer.
(Converting to monochrome doesn't work any better, btw, b/c the glow is still there, just bright white.)
If anyone comes up with any other solutions, please let me know. My demonic-looking pets appreciate it :)
Redeye is caused by the reflection on the flash back into the lens off the pupil. 'Redeye reduction' actually fires the flash before the shot to cause the person/animal's to contract, thus reducing redeyes. How about putting something in front of the flash to diffuse it? I never tried that with mine, but it seems like it might work (theoretically speaking).
I wasn't trying to be grumpy or anything, just reiterating that I am looking for an editing solution to tame the crazy-eyed beasts.
Edited to add:
Originally posted by dassilem:
edited: pictures removed as they are not-applicable and not appreciated.
Well, I'm not sure why you're offended, because your pictures were appreciated, I was just trying to steer the conversation back in the direction I was interested in.
If anyone wants to post pictures of their redeyed or corrected pets I'm always happy to look at pet pictures.
This was a quick snap that I couldn't resist. Ran back to the house to get my camera but forgot my flash unit. I was surprised they were still there. (Not the greatest example...I resized three different times for web.) I used the clone tool, magic wand, some burning and whatever else I could think of and then converted to bw. Not a great job but okay.
Brad's links are good.
