Photo Jockey HELP

Jump to Photo Jockey Home Page
Jump to Help table of contents...

Tip # 78
(Editing) RED EYE / GREEN EYE REDUCTION

Click here to
show the Red Eye Reduction Screen.

Let's say you have some photos with the ever irritating red-eye appearance. This is where the eye of the human subject has a red appearance. In some animals the appearance is sometimes green or yellow. Other colors can appear as well. But the term RED-EYE is popular because it's most common in humans.

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN:
When you take a FLASH picture, the retina reflects the light back to the camera and thus you get the red-eye syndrome.

HOW DO I REDUCE IT BEFORE TAKING A PICTURE:
  • Make the pupil of the eye smaller. This makes the eye reflect LESS light back out of it. You can do this by shining a bright light at the eye, or turning on red-eye reduction on your flash unit, or by having them stare at a bright light right before taking the picture.
  • Increase the distance from the flash to the camera lens. The bigger the distance the less likely the retina will reflect the light back to the lens. So maybe an add-on flash unit instead of the camera's built in flash will help. Just think about a pool table and angles. Realize that as the flash enters the eye and bounces back out, the further away the flash is from the lens the more likely the reflected light out of the retina will fall below the camera lens and will not be seen in the photo.
  • Get Closer to the subject. The further away you get, the more likely the retina will reflect back into the lens, even if you slap on a flash unit on top of your camera.

    NOTE: Some people with lighter colored eyes will ALWAYS have Red-Eye :(

  • HOW DO I REDUCE IT AFTER TAKING A PICTURE:
    If you have photos with Red-Eye that you want to reduce, then you are in luck. Most software that reduces red-eye do a poor job at it. They range from horrible to barely acceptable. Photo Jockey has a red-eye reduction system that produces SUPERIOR results and is SUPER-FAST & EASY to use.

    In order to open the Red-Eye Reduction function of Photo Jockey, just click on the EDIT menu item from the
    main menu, and then pick "Red-Eye / Green-Eye Removal". You can also bring it up by using the tools menu and then selecting the "Red-Eye / Green-Eye Removal" menu option.



    STEP 1:
    Take your mouse and click on the preview image in the upper left portion of the window in the area where the red-eye exists. You don't have to click exactly on the spot, just somewhere close. After you click, the bottom left image will show an enlarged image of the area that you clicked on.

    STEP 2:
    Go into the bottom left image and scroll the red-eye into view using the scroll bars. Then use the zoom slider to zoom to the desired level for viewing. Then DRAW a circle around the eye so that it encircles the red portion that you want to fix. Actually make the circle a little larger than the red portion. You can re-draw the circle if you need to. And you can Drag the circle to position it properly too.

    STEP 3:
    Slide the Feathering Effect slider to the right a tiny bit to get the appropriate blending effect that you want. Then move the Hi-Light Sensitivity slider to the right to bring back the eye hilights. For example: A bright white spot on the eye that is a reflection of light.
    NOTE: You can change the eye color to give it a particular tint and you can also change the shade of the tint too with a slider.

    STEP 4:
    Once you have fixed one red-eye, you can click on the Keep Fix button. Then continue back to STEP 1. If you don't like your changes, you can click the Reload Image button to start over again.

    STEP 5:
    Once you have fixed all the red-eye that you want, you can either click Accept to keep your changes, or you can click Cancel to discard your changes.



    Jump to Help table of contents...