We've all seen photo's that suffer from a bad case of "red eye"....in the case of a cat, it is closer to "green eye" since cats have different pigments in their retinas.Â:censor: This results from having a flash unit too close to the camera lens.Â:censor:
About cat eyes…
With cats, the retina has a special reflective layer called the tapetum lucidum that acts almost like a mirror at the backs of their eyes. If you shine a flashlight or headlights into their eyes at night, their eyes shine back with bright, white light.
About human eyes....
Humans don't have this tapetum lucidum layer in their retinas. If you shine a flashlight in a person's eyes at night, you don't see any sort of reflection. The flash on a camera is bright enough, however, to cause a reflection off of the retina -- what you see is the red color from the blood vessels in the eye. Eeeeew!
Strictly my opinion but not necessarily so in all cases…
The best way to capture a decent cat shot is to move closer to the subject. Use an external flash if possible. With point and shoot cameras with a built in flash...use the red eye reduction feature and turn on as many house lamps or overhead lights as possible. Personally, I turn my Auto Flash OFF and use as much house lighting as possible - natural light has given me the best results overall…
I tell ya what!!!! Once you master shooting pictures of cats you can take great pictures of pert' near anything! LOL!!
>^,,^<
Kim
About cat eyes…
With cats, the retina has a special reflective layer called the tapetum lucidum that acts almost like a mirror at the backs of their eyes. If you shine a flashlight or headlights into their eyes at night, their eyes shine back with bright, white light.
About human eyes....
Humans don't have this tapetum lucidum layer in their retinas. If you shine a flashlight in a person's eyes at night, you don't see any sort of reflection. The flash on a camera is bright enough, however, to cause a reflection off of the retina -- what you see is the red color from the blood vessels in the eye. Eeeeew!
Strictly my opinion but not necessarily so in all cases…
The best way to capture a decent cat shot is to move closer to the subject. Use an external flash if possible. With point and shoot cameras with a built in flash...use the red eye reduction feature and turn on as many house lamps or overhead lights as possible. Personally, I turn my Auto Flash OFF and use as much house lighting as possible - natural light has given me the best results overall…
I tell ya what!!!! Once you master shooting pictures of cats you can take great pictures of pert' near anything! LOL!!
>^,,^<
Kim