Digital Photography Tips: Removing Red Eye from images

fig 1 Red Eyes

Digital Photography Tips: The "Red eye" syndrome, often seen in pictures of people has consistently been a problem since the introduction of compact film cameras with built in flash units. The same problem is now also evident with compact digital cameras.

When you are photography someone in a normally lit room, the pupil of the eye dilates to let more light fall onto the retina. When you then take a picture of that person the light from the flash enters the pupil and lights up the retina giving the characterising 'red eye' effect.

The reason this happens is a design fault of the compact camera; the flash unit is too close to the lens. If the flash is off camera then the angle the flash light enters the lens is greater than the lens. This prevents the effect happening, and is one reason why professional photographers do not use 'on camera' flash for portraits.

Camera manufacturers have also tried to overcome this problem with Red Eye Reduction systems being installed in cameras Unfortunately this is not red eye removal and is not always 100% successful. Some work on the premise of firing the flash twice (or more) before taking the shot. The hope is that the eye will react to the bright flash and close down the pupil reducing the red eye effect.

In image manipulating programs there are various ways of removing red eye from an image. There are many programs with "quick fix" automated wizards or macros. These can be simple to use but the results vary. The best way is to do it yourself. Here we will cover two different techniques of removing the redness seen in the image of the eye. The results of each technique is dependent on the degree of red eye in the image being corrected.

Most image programs have the tools we will cover to correct red eye. Basically these tools include a selection or masking tool; either the Magic Wand or freehand masking tool commonly called a lasso. A paint brush and/or the ability to desaturate (turn the area to black and white).

With both techniques the affected area (the red) is isolated using either the Magic Wand Tool or drawing around the area freehand. In Figure 2 the selected area has been created using the Magic Wand. For best coverage of the area Feathering should be adjusted and tested until the desired coverage of the area is achieved (usually 2 to 3 pixels).

Painting the Eye The Paint Brush is used to paint over the red area. Black is the best color to use with the brush. The Magic Wand is best used when using a paint brush. The wand will not include highlights in the eyes so they will not be painted out as well. When using a selected area the size of the brush can be larger than the area because any detail outside the selected area will not be affected. Once you are satisfied with the result, deselect the area.

Desaturating the Eye

Desaturation can be performed on the red area of the eye.

fig 4 Final Image

• First we have to isolate the red area of the eyes. Isolating the area is best done by using the 'Magic Wand' or it's equivalent.
• Once this is achieved most image programs have a 'Desaturation' or 'Hue Shift' command. This takes all color out of the image or in this case the area that is selected. Color information is still kept in the image. This turns the red to grey.
• The area can be darkened to black by adjusting 'Brightness'(Fig. 3). Other colours such as blue can be introduced into the selected area by using 'Color Balance'.

  When looking at the changes performed at such a magnification as the images above, it may look a bit artificial. To appreciate the success or failure of the work carried out, zoom the image out to its full size and study the correction carefully. If the image is to be printed, inspect it at a 1:1 magnification. The actual image proportion is often displayed next to the file name on top of the image.

  The finished image here is only 300 x 226 pixels in dimension and what you see is the actual 1:1 size here. An image this small of course can be very forgiving for rough alterations. Images that are destined to be printed will be much larger in size and demand close scrutiny.

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