Does anyone know about free software that does a good job on red eye reduction? Of all the graphical programs I have, only Irfanview seems to offer the option but the result is very poor (seemingly ALL the red including skin etc is removed within the selection).
Thanks,
Klaas Bil
There is a free program called RedEye available at jdmcox.com. Scroll down about halfway down the page to find it.
I don’t know if RedEye will give better results than IrfanView or not. Generally for red eye reduction you should zoom in on the photo as much as possible so you can more accurately select just the red parts of the eye and not get any of the skin tones in the selection. IrfanView would be better for that because it lets you zoom in on a photo. The RedEye program at jdmcox.com does not have a zoom feature. Because of the zoom feature I would expect IrfanView to work better.
Thanks John,
I don’t know how you do it, but you ALWAYS seem to have an answer to questions like these. Amazing!
I just tried RedEye. The red-eye reduction results are significantly better than in Irfanview but still not good enough as it turns the dark red into dark gray and the light red into light gray whereas the red-eye spot should rather be black (with a white spot from the flash reflecting off the eye’s surface, ideally).
There must be room for improvement. I am not a programmer but graphics-wise I think I know what should be done. You were right about the selection being easier in Irfanview but the red-eye reduction result is nevertheless horrible and could be best described as a grey square in front of the pupil.
Klaas Bil
What is that thing? 
He has a really cool GPS mapping software and that’s why I have his site bookmarked. I remember seeing that he had a red eye remover program and there it is.
There are some tutorials available on using The Gimp to remove red eye. Do a Google search on something like “gimp red-eye”. From looking at some of the tutorials the results are better than IrfanView. The Gimp lets you keep the highlights and reflections on the eye and just remove the red. It’s a lot more involved than using IrfanView but the results they are getting are much better.
that was the b*cycle while still in commitee stage
Thanks again! No time now; lots to do and holiday starts on Sunday. But I’ve checked some of the samples in those tutorials and they looked good. Have to give GIMP a try later.
Where would I be without Just Conversation?
Klaas Bil
Hei
This will be off topic but since this thread is about graphics, i thought I’d ask about the website that i got my avatar from, I forget what the URL is and I want to get another one. Could anyone tell mewhat the site is called? Thanks.
I found a couple of tutorials with Google that use Photoshop and commands like copying part of the Blue layer into the Red layer, and Desaturate. Now I can tackle almost all red eye problems with good results. If anyone is interested I can elaborate.
Only thing is that the procedure is manual; I still think that the process should be amenable to automation…
Klaas Bil
Re: Graphics q: red eye reduction?
This does not address the question as asked, but…
you should not produce red-eye in the first place. Are you shooting with an SLR? With a separate flash attached to the hot-shoe? If so, you need to get the flash up higher. Use a Stroboframe bracket. This will place the flash up high enough that the light will not bounce off the subject’s retina straight into the camera lens.
But if you have a camera with an integrated flash, you are S.O.L.
I’m not trying to sound clever – actually, I’m a rather pitiful photographer. Especially when it comes to flash photography. But we must have skilled photographers here. Come on, people! How can you avoid red-eye? Here’s a thought I had, but I have no idea whether it will work or whether it will affect the aesthetics of the picture…
For posed shots, what if you tell the subject to look slightly off-camera? Tell them to look at the middle button of your shirt, or slightly left of the camera. Would that change the angle enough so that there is no red-eye? Would it ruin the picture because the subject is not making eye-contact?
(or you could shine a bright flashlight in their eyes for a minute, so their irises “stop down” – then fire at will)
Klaas, I hope you don’t mind me hijacking this thread to explore a related question. Especially since you seem to have found a satisfactory answer.
Also, can you post a link to the Photoshop tutorial? That sounds interesting. I want to learn more about manipulating color (yet another entry on the long list of things I stink at).
Dave (uni57)
Re: Re: Graphics q: red eye reduction?
i grew up wearing glasses (and yes, i guess it does explain a lot)
i was constantly being told to look of to the side so i wouldn’t create big flash-reflections with my glasses
since 4/6 people in the family wore them, eye contact in pics wasn’t a big thing in our house
the flashlight idea is interesting
more and more of the cameras that are sold with built-in flashes now also include ‘anti red-eye’ functionality
which basically gets the flash to strobe three real quick flashes before the pic actually gets taken
i still blame that for my dropping of two eggs during a (three - blush) egg juggling demonstration at an AFRICAM meet a couple of years ago
i could probably find the pics but i think i’ve embarrased myself enough for one day…
Re: Re: Graphics q: red eye reduction?
Most of us take snapshots rather than professional photographs. Attaching a large external flash is a lot of effort and inconvenience for a snapshot.
I have a Casio digital camera that doesn’t have a hot-shoe, but it does have a flash sync terminal for use with an external flash. So I could attach a nice external flash on a Stroboframe or similar mounting bracket and be able to take nice flash photos. But there is no way that I’m going to carry around that kind of bulky equipment for a snapshot.
I’m going to have to learn how to fix red eye using The Gimp.
