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I have noticed today, and previously that when shooting with the 70-200VR and the SB-800 in a dark room, that it is pretty much un avoidable to eliminate red eye. Pre-flash, bounced, slow, -2 compensation on the flash..u name it - red eye appears. Just wondering if anyone else out there had noticed this with this particular combo and if so how you avoid it, if at all!? I can post examples from tonight but it's simply very obvious redeye.

Just photograph people who do not have red eyes

sirhc55 wrote:Just photograph people who do not have red eyes

two things I didn't do were use the SB800 diffuser OR the PJLSII - Bel......

How about FV-Lock?

So the pre-flash doesnt fire.

Or, remote SB800?

Yi-P wrote:How about FV-Lock?

So the pre-flash doesnt fire.

Or, remote SB800?

Yeah Yi-p - I forced pre-flash not to fire - no difference.
Remote...well yeah - I nearly asked u to go stand on stage....

geoff, were you zoomed right into 200mm? The longer your focal length, IMO the further you have to move the flash from the lens to avoid red-eye, because you're standing further away and the angle between lens & flash is much smaller. I've had reasonable success with my 80-200 @ 80mm (in fact, I don't usually have problems in the portrait range with the SB800 camera-mounted), but the further away you are, the more likely you are to get red zombie eyes

Maybe try an off-camera flash?

Also, I woulda thought that you'd WANT the pre-flashes to go off - isn't that how the RER normally works? Blind the subject with bright lights and force their pupils to contract.

losfp wrote:geoff, were you zoomed right into 200mm? The longer your focal length, IMO the further you have to move the flash from the lens to avoid red-eye, because you're standing further away and the angle between lens & flash is much smaller. I've had reasonable success with my 80-200 @ 80mm (in fact, I don't usually have problems in the portrait range with the SB800 camera-mounted), but the further away you are, the more likely you are to get red zombie eyes

Maybe try an off-camera flash?

Also, I woulda thought that you'd WANT the pre-flashes to go off - isn't that how the RER normally works? Blind the subject with bright lights and force their pupils to contract.

Losfp - I was zoomed in to 200 most of the time yep..
off camera flash would definately improve things I think, yes.
With the pre-flash comment, I found it made no difference to redeye at all.

Thanks for your input

Redeye is a direct function of light angle out from the flash and its return to the lens. The narrower it becomes the more you are going to get redeye.

Imagine you have a rubber bungee cord with one end attached to your flash and the other to your lens. Pull the centre of the cord out to the subject and this represents light being sent out to the subject, striking the subject and then returning to the lens. If your subject is close to the camera then the angle between the two is going to be easy to see; the further out you stretch the cord though the narrower the angle becomes until the light is almost coming back on the same axis. It is at this point that you start getting redeye.

You can quite happily photograph anyone you want with your SB-800 on the camera without the risk of redeye so long as they are reasonably close to the camera. If you are going to photograph people with flash on the camera a long telephoto lens there is almost no way you can avoid redeye.

The advice here... forget exposure compensation and preflash ... get the flash off the camera and place it on a light stand... it is the only effective way of getting about this problem and maintaining some certainty that you are going to get a well exposed image without redeye.

Antsl, when you get the flash on a light stand were to positon it though??

Just to the side 1m or something???

I had this same problem today with the 80-200 zoomed into 200.

MATT

I tried hard to find the answer, came out with one:

They got red eye on it because they're envy of you having a 70-200VR (or the 80-200) + SB800.

Have you tried with someone who own the same combo? they might not have any red-eye on them...

Excuse the really crap photography, but this was with my 80-200 at about 170mm f2.8 with sb-800. I have croped some off the top of the image.




Now if I can convince the wife htat the problem is the 80-200 and that I NEED a 70-200VR I should be right.. WOnt help the red eye though.

cant win them all


MATT