Hi there all you great knowledgeable camera buffs. Wonder if you can help.

I'm using a Espio 140 and just got back some Christmas pictures. I am trying all kinds of zooms and was using 400 film indoors. I had the flash on.

I took a photo of a little boy on the closest setting and got a really well framed shot of head and shoulders, but terrible red eyes. Poor kid looked like something from the exorcist the red eyes were so strong.

Other photos of the family showed red eye there but not quite so prominent at other zoom settings further away. i.e. 3 family members in the one shot.

I spoke to the man at the processing shop and he said the camera only has red eye reduction, not elimination.

Short of getting all photos touched up to eliminate the red eye, is there anything else I could have done?

Angela

"Red-eye" is caused by light bouncing off the back of the eye (the retina)into your lens. Red-eye reduction is a preliminary flash to cause the pupil to contract, shrinking the opening (and exit) of the eye.

I don't know your camera but here are some common solutions:
1) If the flash tilts or swivels, tilt up 45 degrees and bounce off the ceiling (or wall if shooting a vertical). Not only does the light not reflect back to your lens but softens the flash so it doesn't look so harsh.
2) Cover the flash (AND THE FLASH ONLY)with a thin hankerchief or white scarf. This will diffuse the flash (no straight in light waves) and product the softening mentioned above.

Good luck

Glenn

Thanks Glenn,

Will try the second. The flash is a fixed object to the camera and not moveable up and down.

Would you please also check out my other posting to you on another photography site about storing film and respond at your convenience.

Thanks

Angela

Angela,

Check out question 17 on this site.
http://www.geocities.com/jpmccormac/tips.html

I'm probably going to start a new topic (Point & Shoot, or some such) and post the link there too since so many people seem to be having questions about P&S cameras.

Mike