Photo edit tip when eliminating red eye in Lab photos

[imported_Dukesdad]

Here's a tip that will help you eliminate red eye when using a photo editor. Most editors have some sort of function that will darken the eye area but this creates, in many cases, an unreal look.
The trick is to add a tiny reflection using a paint tool to paint in a tiny white dot.
In the examples below,
A. is the unretouched photo.
B. The eye has been darkened but looks strange.
C. Voila, a tiny white spot brings the eye back to life.



When Duke is flashed his eyes are blue/green but Freckles reflects red. Wondering if all Labs reflect blue/green?

[zoesmom]

thanks for the tip!

[imported_bacatherine]

I agree it makes it look more real. Mocha and Zeus are always green.
They actually have green eye pens like the red eye ones for prints too. The photographer that took the Santa pictures this year said it works really well. They sell them at the Feeders Supply stores here in town.

[Baloo317]

I was told that when they reflect red it's the reflection of a certain blood vessel in the eye. When they reflect blue/green, it means that the flash is reflecting a special lens that is there to aide with seeing at night (why all cats reflect blue/green as well)

I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, but it seems to make sense in most cases.

[HersheyK's Dad]

Balloo,

If you look at human eyes, you will see red-eye. Dog eyes, clear, white, silver, greenish, sometimes bluish. I was told that it is reflection from blood supply, but that doesn't make 100% sense. Dog's have blood supply also. Then I was told the lack of red in the canine eye is an indicator of them being color blind. Duh! I don't know other than humans are almost always red, and dogs that eerie blue/gray/green glow. Easy to prevent with an external flash bounced.

[Baloo317]

Easy to prevent with an external flash bounced.

One of those is TOTALLY on my christmas list!

[labby]

From http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/photo-eyes.html

Why do dogs get blue, not red, eyes in flash photos?

Veterinary ophthalmologist J. Phillip Pickett of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine explains:

"Red eye," the nemesis of amateur photographers, occurs when someone looks directly at the camera while a picture is taken. If the flash is on the same axis as the visual axis of the camera, the reflection off the blood vessels in the person's retina can produce an eerie, satanic look, the so-called red reflex.

Dogs, cats and almost all domestic animals have a special reflective layer in the back of the eye termed the tapetum. Incoming light passes through the animal's retina and is then reflected back through the retina a second time from the tapetal layer. This double stimulation helps these species to see better in dim light. The color of this tapetal layer varies to some extent with an animal's coat color. A black Labrador retriever, for example, will usually have a green tapetal reflection. A buff-colored cocker spaniel will generally show a yellow, tapetal reflection. Most young puppies and kittens have a blue tapetal reflection until the structures in the back of the eye fully mature at six to eight months of age. "Color dilute" dogs and cats, such as red Siberian huskies and blue point Siamese cats, may have no tapetal pigment and may therefore exhibit a red reflex just like human beings.

From Scientific American, Volume 285 Number 3, September 2001, Page 104

[georgie]

Thanks for the tip. I tried to photoshop the goofy blue color but the weird looking brown was worse. I will try that trick.

[theoconbrio]

Great tip! And thanks for the reference, Laura. That's really interesting!

[HersheyK's Dad]

And Labby provides the science behind the phenomina. Thanks!