22h ago

It was a dark time for all.

94 comments

Wait, do digital cameras not do the red eye effect? Now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen a photo with red eye in it in a long time, but I had always assumed that was a consequence of the camera flash, not the film...
Edit: TIL that camera redeye does come from the flash, but it hasn't been much of a thing these days because today's phones/cameras adjust the flash timing to compensate. Thanks for the replies!
- The red eye effect happens when flash reflects off the retina. Compact cameras (film and early digital) had flash very close to the lens, so there was a high chance of that happening.
  Not much of a chance these days, when most people take photos with cell phones, the cellphone cameras have adequate low light performance so you don't need flash to begin with, and the "flash" is just an LED that isn't as luminous as a real flash bulb.
- Hardly anyone takes photos with a flash anymore.
  Phones instead crank up the sensitivity and use AI to get rid of the noise (=draw an image that vaguely resembles what's in front of the camera).
  
  The sensors themselves are also slightly better than 20 years ago, much less 40. Meaning they can probably produce a nicer image before all the AI shit.
- It was the flash. That's why cameras flash earlier now.
  
  Oh god , remember the anti red eye flash that strobed for a second before the flash?
  I still don’t understand how that worked. At the time I thought it was “getting your eyes used to the bright light so they wouldn’t turn red with the big flash,” but that definitely doesn’t make sense.
  
  I still don’t understand how that worked. At the time I thought it was “getting your eyes used to the bright light so they wouldn’t turn red with the big flash,” but that definitely doesn’t make sense.
  I understood it as the red eyes you see in photos is the wide open iris of an eye you're photographing zooming in on the blood vessels in the back of the eye. Flashing bright light before the photo makes the iris of the person you're photographing contract significantly, so you can't see the blood vessels in the back of the eye anymore.
  
  So I was right??!!
  
  Yes
  
  Well, that's it. A first (few) flash(es) to contract your retina, and then the flash to take the picture.
  
  With film cameras, you got me. No clue. I always wondered though.
- I distinctly remember early Facebook and its predecessors being filled with red-eye pictures
  
  Now that you mention it, I think you might be right... My memory's not the best lol. From the other replies, it seems that the rarity of redeye these days comes from the timing of modern cameras' flash, not whether or not it uses film.

94 comments