Photography: Red Eye - Aqua Eye

This has been puzzling me for a long time, so maybe someone on the forum has the answer. We all know about the red-eye caused by the flash in human photography. Why is it that in some dog photos, there is an aqua-eye and in others a red-eye? icon_nwunsure

In many animals like cats and dogs there is a membrane layer behind the retina which helps them to see in the dark (tapetum lucidum). In flash photography this is what is illuminated and causes the red eye.
If you take pictures in natural light you can avoid it all together.
Or shooting at an angle as to not illuminate the retina.
I hope this helps!

The tapetum lucidum eh? So in the shots that show up aqua this is what is being displayed? while in the red shot it is the back of the retina?

Yeah I tend to keep the flash turned off unless it is absolutely necessary to use it. It did intrigue me though about the different colour.

Thanks for the info! 8)

I am not sure about the aqua color but I do know that the red eye or variations of that, result from the color of the animals eye. (My cats eyes often flash orange.)

I did a little bit of web research in this a while back to try to figure out how to minimize the colored-eye effect when I take flash pictures of Annie. The red-eye reduction feature on most cameras doesn't work on animals for the most part. The only way to fix it is to use photoshop or something similar to alter the eye colors. I've gotten pretty good at it. In fact, I did it to Annie's avatar picture.

Here's the original for comparison:



Here are a couple of interesting links on the topic:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/redeyeremoval/ss/peteye.htm

http://www.colorpilot.com/redeye_effect.html

Dave

Dave, thanks for the really helpful info! I don't have photoshop but am hoping to be able to minimize the doggie alien eyes using some of your tips!