Red eye has long been the bane of photographers. How many times have we photographed our friends and family in a variety of social scenarios, and the flash photography leaves our pictures of people looking like demons!

Red-eye occurs when your camera uses a burst of flash to capture a decent exposure. In low-light conditions our pupils open wide so that we can see more clearly. This means that a sudden influx of light from the camera will illuminate the eyes’ interior, bouncing off the blood vessels on our retinas – and adding a sinister red glow to our subject’s eyes.

In the days before digital cameras, red-eye related prints that were sent back from the printers were often covered in Quality Control stickers, absolving the film processors of any responsibility for our flash-induced failings. In these digital days, however, red eye doesn’t have to mean wasted pictures. Red eye removal techniques abound.

Of course, for those of you wondering how to remove red eye from pictures, the best way is to use your camera’s Red-eye On/Off command. This reduces the occurrence of red eye by zapping the subject with a pre-flash before the main flash fires to capture the shot. This pre-flash cause the subject’s pupils to shrink, minimising the amount of light that enters the eye when the main flash fires.

Be aware though that the subject may think that the first flash means your photo was taken, causing them to stop posing before being caught by the main burst of flash.

But being realistic, we don’t always remember to use our Red-eye command. In which case it’s best to turn to your computer and remove red eye in Photoshop. Below we’ve shown you how to remove red eye in Photoshop Elements in 4 easy steps.

Red eye removal in Photoshop Elements

Step 1: Auto red eye removal
In theory, the quickest way to remove red-eye is to let Elements do it for you automatically. Go to the Organizer. Choose File>GetPhotosAndVideos and pick From Files and Folders. Browse to redeye_start.jpg. Tick the Automatically Fix Red Eyes box and click Get Media. In theory, Elements should be able to analyse the shot and remove any red-eye while importing it.

Step 2: Try again!
In the case of our image, our subject’s pupils are too small for Elements to identify, so despite trying it fails to remove the red-eye while importing the shot. You can try to automatically fix red-eye from within the Organizer by choosing Edit>AutoRedEyeFix – but here you’ll get a message saying ‘No red eyes were found in the selected photo’. We’ll need to give Elements a hand!

Step 3: Quick fix
Click on the little fly out icon to the right of the Organizer’s Fix tab and choose Quick Photo Edit to go to the Quick Editor suite of common photo fixing tools, including a Red Eye Removal tool. Select this from the mini Tools palette on the left. As our subject’s pupils are small, head to the Options bar and set Pupil Size to 30%. Pop Darken Amount to 60% for solid black pupils.

Step 4: In a click
Move the cursor so the Red Eye Removal tool’s crosshair floats over the first red pupil. Click to sample the red colour and the tool will alter it to black. Do the same thing to the second pupil and you’ll have manually banished the red-eye (and succeeded where Elements’ Auto features have failed!). You’ll also find the Red Eye Removal tool in the full Photoshop Elements editor.

Strictly Come Dancing stars James and Ola Jordan will be making a special appearance at Olympus’s stand at next month’s Focus On Imaging show.

The pair will be on hand to help celebrate the unveiling of the much-discussed Olympus OM-D range.

The pair will be putting on several performances and taking part in a Q and A as part of Olympus’s programme at the four-day photography event.

The Olympus stand will also host a number of talks from pro photographers, as well as discussions with Olympus experts to hear their thoughts on the new OM-D range.

All images copyright Brett Harkness

Babies, toddlers and teenagers (oh my!). After the Panamanian kinkajou they might be one of the most challenging subjects to take a portrait of. Below we’ve spoken to leading lifestyle and portrait photographers, Brett Harkness, who does this day in and day. These are 13 of his best portrait photography tips for getting more creative pictures of babies, toddlers and teenagers.

Tip 1: Shoot when baby’s happy
Babies make few demands, but those they do are important: food and sleep. If you want to catch a baby at their best, try to time your portrait just after a nap or feed. In the hour after eating or sleeping, babies will smile and coo for your camera. likewise, babies are at their most active first thing in the morning after they’ve woken up. The later in the day you try to photograph a baby, the more of a gamble you’re taking.

Tip 2: Be patient
Babies are best shot once they can support their own body weight. They’re still easy to pose, but more likely to retain their position. What’s more, a baby will be more expressive when they’re a little older, because they’re more aware.

Tip 3: Let teens choose their wardrobe
When you photograph a teenager, you should pay careful attention to what they’re wearing. people at this age are very self-conscious, so to make them comfortable, treat it like a mini fashion shoot. encourage them to bring as much of their wardrobe as they’d like. Some guidance is necessary, though. Teens are typically fashion conscious, but for the best images you’ll want them wearing neutral clothes. Anything more will distract the viewer or date your shot.

Tip 4: Get teens away from their parents
Adolescents always behave differently when their parents aren’t around. If you can remove them from the equation you’ll make a teen more comfortable. “Start indoors and quickly ditch the parents,” Brett says. “go for a walk and look for interesting backdrops. You get a different response from an older kid when his parents are away, and they end up being some of the best subjects you can have.”

Tip 5: Don’t use flash
It seems obvious in retrospect, but we never think about it until we’ve done it. And then we’re left with a baby screaming bloody murder and a shoot cut short. Flash frightens babies, and often spooks toddlers and young children too, so always use available light if possible. If not, and you really do want to use flash, another option is to use a flash diffuser: the bigger and softer the diffuser, the less noticeable the flash burst will be. you could also try using off-camera flash, as the child will normally be looking at you and the camera lens.

Tip 6: Use props
Kids respond well to props, whether they’re toys, clothes or something else entirely. they give them something to connect with, and take a bit of the fear away from your clunky equipment. Brett, who shot the images used in this article, tells us: “I like to tell kids my reflector is a magic carpet, then put it on the ground for them to sit on. This makes them less afraid of it when it’s being held next to them.”

You can also put teddies and stuffed toys on your lens when taking a child’s picture, which gets them to look at the camera without looking at you.

Tip 7: Make a game of it
Kids have too much energy. Because of this, they’re not going to want to pose for you. Besides, you can better depict a child’s spirit by following them around and capturing them in action. Of course, a moving subject is always more difficult to photograph. To ensure the child is in focus, make a game of it.

Concentrate on one tree in particular, say, then take the kid down to the tree you want them to touch and tell them to run as fast as they can to it then stop. This makes it a little more fun for the child, and you’ll be sure to get the picture you want.

Tip 8: Under-expose for unusual baby photos
For a surreal effect with babies, turn the lights off and use only natural light. move a sofa next to a window and put a dark towel on one of the cushions, then lay the baby on the towel. By under-exposing two or three stops, the top light will throw the background into black and the baby will look like it’s floating.

Tip 9: Show them your pictures
It’s not always advisable to let your subjects see the shots you’ve taken on the rear lcD; people can get self- conscious about their appearance or try to take over the photo shoot and get you to take more shots. This is not normally so much of a problem with kids, however, and letting them see the shots can be a good way to get them engaged.

Tip 10: Bring toys!
Kids get bored easily, so turn your photo shoot into playtime – bring along favourite toys for them to hold an delay with. This occupies them, keeping them still for a few seconds, plus you’ll get some interesting expressions on the little angels’ faces.

Tip 11: Mum & Dad
It’s essential when photographing babies and young children that mum or dad is on hand. This will keep the kids feeling comfortable. Get mum or dad to stand behind you and attract their child’s attention with silly faces, dancing – whatever it takes – so that they’re looking in your direction.

Tip 12: Find the confident one
If you’re shooting a group of children or teens, whether siblings or friends, their collective nervousness is going to manifest itself in reluctance or stubbornness. You can combat this by singling out the most confident kid in the group and shooting him or her first. When they show that they enjoy it, this will demonstrate to the others that you’re not there to humiliate them.

Tip 13: Trust the older kids
With older children and teenagers you might have to be a little bit of a psychologist, as well as a photographer. While in baby photography your main subject is quite happy to let mum or dad run the show, older kids have their own self-identity and vision of how they want to be seen. As a child photographer you need to tread a delicate line of how their parents want to see their children, and how the children see themselves.

Be patient and trust the kids to show you their true nature. Ultimately mum and dad will love your photos because you’ll capture their child acting in a way they might rarely get to see!

Dubbed the ‘Pure View’ camera, Nokia has given a hint of what its new smartphone is capable of in the 22-second video below.

The video shows high-quality images of snowy scenes and flashes text reading ‘Pure Depth’, ‘Pure Definition’ and ‘Pure Detail’, ending with the date February 27, 2012.

This date is the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona.

Via SlashGear

The landmark V1 (along with its younger sibling, the J1) marks Nikon’s first foray into the compact system camera market. Designed for the mobile photographer, its fast performance, advanced features and newly designed interchangeable lens system will help you take creative images of the highest quality wherever you go.

How to Win a Nikon V1 kit

For a chance at winning a fabulous new Nikon V1 + 10-30mm lens kit all you have to do is visit us at the Focus On Imaging show.

Come by the Digital Camera stand at E42 and say hello. We’ll scan your entry badge, and your name will go into a draw. It’s that simple!

Focus On Imaging runs from 4 to 7 March at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. Come by and say hello on any of those days and we’ll enter you into the draw.

On 30 March we will draw a name at random, and this lucky person will win the Nikon V1 kit. Once the winner is notified, we will post an announcement on our website.

The winner will also be profiled in the next issue of our sister title, N-Photo, the magazine dedicated solely to Nikon photographers, following the 30 March draw, as well as on our websites.

For more information on the Focus show, visit the Focus On Imaging website.

For full competition terms and conditions, visit the Future Publishing website.

Image copyright Mark Smith

British wildlife photographers have a chance to win a cash prize of £5,000 and their work showcased in a national touring photography exhibition as the British Wildlife Photography Awards 2012 kick off.

With an overall prize fund worth £20,000, entries have now opened for the 2012 competition. Winners and commended entrants will have their work showcased in a national touring exhibition, as well as reproduced in a book published by AA Publishing.

The Awards’ 12 categories include Animal Portraits, Animal Behaviour, Urban Wildlife, Hidden Britain, Coast and Marine, Wild Woods, Wildlife in my Backyard, Habitat, Living Landscape, British Seasons, Documentary Series and Wildlife in HD Video.

Images may be entered by purchasing ‘credits’, which cost £5 each. Entry of a single image costs 2 credits, while 3 credits lets you enter up to 5 images and 4 credits up to 10 pictures. For a full breakdown of the fee structure visit the BWPA competitions website.

Now in its fourth year, the British Wildlife Photography Awards were established to recognise the talents of wildlife photographers of all nationalities practising in Britain, whilst at the same time highlighting the great wealth and diversity of Britain’s natural history.

We spoke to Theron about what is behind Maddie on Things.

Maddie on Things

Why did you decide to start your blog,  Maddie on Things?

Maddie is just a side project I do; something to always makes me laugh. Even if you’re doing what you love in life – living your dream – some days are going to feel like a grind. The Maddie project is little a pause to life for me.

How have you found the response to this blog?

The response blew me away at first, I was just taking some fun photos of my dog. But folks love animals, and I’m with them, I love my dog! I wonder if that’s how William Wegman felt; I think he started off just using his dogs in some art video projects and I bet it evolved.

The photographs are beautiful and I see that you are now selling prints; do you have any plans to publish a photo book?

I’m having some initial conversations with a book publisher this week actually, we’ll see where it goes. The best part is that I’m just taking the photographs for fun, because I love to, so I already feel content.

This Wild Idea

Theron also runs This Wild Idea, which focuses entirely on documentary photography. Perhaps aptly named, This Wild Idea sets out to photography people across all 50 states in the US to document the lives of the ‘ordinary’ people who live there. The individuals and the important aspects of their daily lives are photographed, and a brief story of that person is told on the blog. You can even change Theron’s route online if you decide you want to be featured in This Wild Idea. Theron’s wild idea might just turn out to be a very good one.

‘This Wild Idea’ sounds really interesting. You’re now on day 200 and it looks like you’re going strong! What is the idea behind the project?

What I’m doing is pretty simple, but I suppose a lot of good things in life are. I’m traveling to all 50 states in the US in one year photographing folks everyday, telling and collecting stories, in the hope that the images will become more valuable one day. Often in photography extremes are celebrated – war or poverty – but I became more interested in grandmothers planting heirloom seeds in their backyards. Everyone has a story, and they are always good ones.

How have people reacted to this project? Have they been happy to get involved?

When folks realize that you’re not asking them for money and that you’re not trying to sell them anything, I’ve almost always found open hearts. When folks slow down and think, “What if I had audio of my mom’s voice before I was born?” or, “What if I had 10 nice photographs of my grandparents”, they realize that what I’m out here doing will be bigger than all of us one day, even if it’s just to one person.

What camera equipment do you use?

The Maddie project is done with my iPhone 4 using the Instagram App. The This Wild Idea project is done with a Canon 5D Mark II with a vintage 35mm Carl Zeiss lens.

How did you start out in photography?

I went to undergrad in the Appalachian Mountains; it’s this wonderful region filled with stories and music. I was studying computer science there, and I just happened to be in the generation that had access to affordable digital cameras. Digital photography fulfilled my nerd side; I could still build a computer to edit images, and there was their amazing craft aspect that filled up my soul.

Visit Maddie on Things. Visit This Wild Idea. Take a look at more of Theron’s photography or follow him on Twitter.

Image copyright Ian Evenden

Are you having trouble taking decent photos of birds in flight? Don’t worry, it’s a common problem and doesn’t mean you’re not a talon-ted photographer.

From getting an accurate exposure of your subject against all that bright sky to simply being in the right place at the right time, one of the more challenging genres you’ll ever attempt will be bird photography. Tips and techniques abound, but we’ve put together what we believe are the 10 most fundamental rules you should follow when taking pictures of birds in flight.

Tip 1: Go big
Birds tend to be on the small side, and this, combined with their awkward habit of flying high and fast, means you often have to use a long lens to photograph them. It’s hard to find a lens that’s too long for photographing birds in flight, and 400mm and 500mm lenses, both primes and zooms, are common choices.

Tip 2: Not so wide
A 400mm lens at f/5.6 and a subject 10m away gives a depth of field of 13cm. Using Av mode and stopping down to f/8 will give you an extra 5cm of depth and increase the sharpness of your image, as lenses are rarely at their best when they’re used at maximum aperture.

Tip 3: Speed is of the essence
A shutter speed of 1/800 of a second or faster will help to capture feather detail on moving wings without blurring. A more artistic approach is to deliberately blur the wings using a slower shutter speed, giving an impression of movement, especially if the bird is just taking off.

Tip 4: Set high ISO
Keeping your shutter speed high and maintaining enough depth of field to keep a bird sharply rendered can mean using high ISOs. Don’t be afraid of this, as noise reduction software, including the Digital Photo Professional that came free with your camera, can do an extremely good job.

Tip 5: The raw deal
In order to use this software to its maximum effect, it’s a good idea to shoot in raw. The tweaks you can make to contrast and saturation can make a vast difference to your images, bringing out the intricate patterns of birds’ feathers and the brightness of their eyes.

Tip 6: Captive audience
Captive birds look remarkably similar to their wild counterparts. Shooting at an organised flying display will allow you to get close to species you’d never find in the wild, and they fly lower, slower and more predictably. Better still, some centres hold special photographers’ days.

Tip 7: Use AI Servo mode and centre point focus
AI Servo mode constantly adjusts the focus on a moving target, while using only the centre focus point minimises the chances of focusing on the background by mistake. Keep your central focus point over your target and constantly half-press the shutter button to keep it in focus as it moves.

Image copyright Ian Evenden

Tip 8: Spot meter
To avoid silhouetting against a bright sky, try using the camera’s spot meter. Keeping the bird in the centre of the spot, which usually surrounds the central focus point, ensures that the feathers are properly exposed. For a deliberate silhouette, spot meter off the background and engage exposure lock.

Tip 9: Use a monopod
Handholding a large lens all day can be tiring, but using a tripod is often not practical when trying to photograph something unpredictable and fast-moving. A monopod is a good compromise, supporting the weight but enabling you to pan and follow-focus quickly, and can even be lifted entirely off the ground if needed.

Tip 10: Pick your targets
Know which species of bird to look for and you’re halfway to great photographs. For instance, a peregrine falcon can fly at 242mph, while in a ‘stoop’ dive to catch prey while vultures, geese, woodcocks and owls move at a more camera-friendly pace. Likewise, an eagle’s wings beat much more slowly than a hummingbird’s.

Image copyright Ian Evenden

A lot of cool images and fun technique ideas pass through our inboxes, but rarely do they come with such punning potential.

If you think the annual pancake toss is flipping boring, why not avoid all the usual crepe and try a new photography technique that starts in your kitchen and ends looking through your wideangle pancake lens.

Lyle’s Golden Syrup has come up with a new way for photographers to celebrate Pancake Day by creating a new series of edible three-dimensional ‘panscapes’ that turn the humble pancake into an edible art form that you can make easily at home.

Food experts Polly Betton and Andrew Stellitano have built a series of 3D landscapes using the humble pancake as their basis, creating terrains ranging from desert islands and volcanoes to icebergs and forests, which were then photographed by food photographer Dominic Davies, who shot the images for chef Heston Blumenthal’s The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.

The ‘panscapes’ were all created using common household cupboard ingredients such as pancake mix, packets of meringues, cocktails sticks and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which sponsored the project.

Below, watch Andrew make a forest ‘panscape’:

So get out your aprons and digital cameras and get to work! If you’ve made a panscape yourself, we’d love to see it!

And if you want to see more from Andrew, visit the We Love Baking Facebook page.

Before

Bounce flash photography. It sounds like a complicated procedure, one of those mythical flash techniques we try desperately to avoid.

We’ve all been there. You’re at a party or gathering and want to take a picture that captures the atmosphere of the moment. When shooting in low light, your first instinct is probably to use a tripod with a long shutter speed, or increase the ISO to shoot handheld.

But if you’re taking pictures of people indoors at a party you can forget the first option; your subjects won’t keep still! A high ISO can often work because it preserves atmosphere. But you get grainy pictures and have to use the widest aperture and slowest shutter speeds possible.

Using a bounce flash technique is your most flexible option in this scenario, and it’s also remarkably easy to do. You can stay mobile, and you have a greater range of shutter speeds and apertures to choose from. You can also use a low ISO setting to retain image quality.

By bouncing flash off the ceiling or a wall, rather than firing it directly at your subject, your flash light becomes more diffuse and even. As such, pictures that employ bounced flash look much more natural. In fact, if this bounce flash technique is done well, people won’t be able to tell that flash has been used at all.

Most external flashguns have a bounce flash facility, though some have more flexibility to turn and tilt the head. All modern guns also have a TTL, or through-the-lens, mode. This ensures that the extra power needed from the flash is set automatically.

But be warned, as bounce flash techniques can sometimes look bland if the light is just too even! Portraits also lack sparkle, as eyes don’t have ‘catchlights’ (the small, bright reflections of flash in people’s eyes). To add these, use the pull-out ‘bounce card’ found on many hotshoe guns. This white plastic sheet directs some of the flash output straight at the subject, giving a smidge of direct light and adding mirror-like catchlights. So without further ado…

Bounce Flash Photography in 4 Simple Steps

Step 1: Control the exposure
The camera and flash can be set to take care of the flash exposure for you, even when you’re bouncing the light. Set the flashgun to its TTL mode. Use the Aperture Priority (A) exposure mode on your digital camera, so that you can set a wide aperture that suits most portraits.

Step 2: Find the right surface
Check the colour of the ceiling; white is ideal, but off-white will do. We’re used to things being lit from above, so ceilings provide natural-looking illumination. You can bounce flash off a white wall too, as this can look like window light.

Step 3: Pull out the bounce flash card!
The secret weapon for making bounce flash portraits look alive, with engaging catchlights in your subject’s eyes, is a white plastic bounce card. This slots in above the flash and is pulled out with the wide-angle diffuser. Remove both, then push back the diffuser.

Step 4: Compensation culture
Look at your results carefully on the back of your digital camera, checking the histogram for signs of both over- and underexposure. If the flash isn’t bright enough, or is too bright, use the flash exposure compensation facility to increase or decrease the light level.

After

7 quick bounce flash photography tips

Tip 1: Use fresh batteries
Bounce flash needs four times more power than direct flash. Use fresh batteries and take spares so a flash recycles fast.

Tip 2: Increase your ISO
Don’t leave ISO set at 100. To prolong battery life and speed up recycle times, boost sensor sensitivity to at least ISO400.

Tip 3: Shoot in raw
Colour balance, contrast and exposure issues are common with flash. Shoot in RAW (or RAW+JPEG) to correct problems later on.

Tip 4: Use what’s available
Not all flashguns have a bounce card to give frontal fill and catchlights. But a bit of card and a rubber band will do just as well.

Tip 5: Try white paper
For vertical-format shots, the bounce card will be in the wrong place. Hold white paper behind the flash head instead.

Tip 6: Ceiling the deal
Make sure your ceiling is white, or near white, or your subject will be the colour of the paintwork!

Tip 7: Find a new angle
If the ceiling is too high, angle your flashgun so it lets you bounce flash off a white wall behind or beside you.