Red-eye is the most common effect when taking a shot with the flash on. It’s caused by the flash being too fast and very bright for the pupil to close, reflecting the part of the fundus which significantly has a vibrant red color. This is not only happening in human eyes, but also in the animal world.
To fix the effect, we can replace the color manually or clone from the area that doesn’t appear to be red. But these approaches are not easy to follow.
Instead, Adobe Photoshop has gifted its users to instantly fix red eyes in a picture. It generally only needs one click or a few clicks if it has a bit more complex image structure. But in the end, it’s very easy to do.
1. First, open the photo with red eyes in Photoshop.
2. Under the Spot Healing Brush Tool, select Red Eye Tool.
3. Adjust the Pupil Size and Darken Amount if needed. But the default value is good enough in general.
4. Click the red part of the eye until it appear just right.
5. Now you have successfully fixed the red-eye problem. Multiple clicks maybe needed.
To prevent the same effect from occurring again, you can use a flash diffuser or simply just taking a picture from a different angle that not directly into the subject’s eye. Another way is by improving the ambient lighting so the need for a camera flash can be eliminated.
If you looking to remove a red-eye effect on a group photo, I suggest you use GIMP. This freeware allows you to fix multiple red eyes in a single click.
