Have you ever taken the PERFECT photo of your dog, only to have it essentially ruined by the dreaded flash-eye thing? If you’re anything like me, you’ve tried that red-eye fix that comes with picture editing software. And, like me, you’ve found out that it does NOT work on pets’ eyes. Well, it seems Kodak found a way to deal with it better.
The technology will be available this summer at Kodak Picture Kiosks, but I got the chance to see it in action last week at BlogPaws.
Here are some before and after results:
Two things:
One — I had to laugh when the Kodak guy who was helping me asked if I needed to correct anything else about Ginko’s eyes. I guess he thought that golden-brown color may have been an anomaly too.
Two — I think the corrected version of Ginko looks creepy. Do you?
Because time was at an extreme premium at the conference, I was racing to play with the photos/kiosk before some other event started, so there’s a good chance I didn’t go a very good job and therefore made my big boy look like the walking dead.
My best solution to this eye problem in photos? Shoot pictures outside.
Those of you famous for amazing dog photos … any advice you want to add?
*** Disclosure ***
I did have the chance to play with a Kodak photo kiosk. I did get a new reusable Kodak-logo’d bag as part of my schwag. I did get few free photo prints, but I was not compensated by the company to write about this technology. I simply thought you guys might be interested.
I’ve gotten used to the flashy eyes. They don’t really bother me anymore, unless they’re a creepy shade of red of something. I think maybe that the program would work better if they used an off-black instead. Using solid black in the center of Ginko’s eyes does make him look a little creepy!
I agree about Ginko’s corrected eyes looking a little creepy. I once went to the trouble of correcting K’s eyes “by hand” in photoshop, and the result was a lot like that.
My only trick is to wait until my dogs aren’t looking straight at me. That seems to work. And the “red eye” setting on my camera only makes a dog’s eyes look worse, imo.
Thanks, though. I’m glad that kodak is working on this!
It’s funny you asked if Ginko’s touch up looked a little creepy. When I was scrolling down and saw the photo, it’s exactly what I thought – “Um, now that’s a little creepy!” We can send people to the space station, but we can’t get a technology to take good photos of our dogs! 🙂
The corrected photo of Ginko does look a little off, but it’s not horrible. I avoid the “flash-eye” problem by not using a flash, but I also have a really fast lens, so it works well inside, even in relatively low lighting.
For those whose cameras aren’t as quick, you can try photographing by a window, especially on a sunny day. And Roxanne, your suggestion for photographing outside is obviously a good one.
That’s good advice, Alison. Thanks. Everyone should click through and see your site. Terrific photos. If you haven’t seen some of my friend KB’s dog and wildthing photos on her blog (Romping and Rolling in the Rockies), check it out.
I try to use natural light to avoid the eye thing as much as I can, but sometimes the dogs are doing the CUTEST thing in the relative dark. I haven’t gotten very good (yet) at capturing it.