Nikon D-50 Question

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:51:27 GMT, PinkFloyd43 wrote:

> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
> dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the
> past few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?

Red Eye shouldn't really increase if the camera is defective.
It's caused both by the camera and the photographer. The camera, if
its lens is too close to the flash. This doesn't change with the
built-in flash. It could have changed if you were previously using
an external flash, as the greater distance from the flash to the
lens would have minimized or eliminated the red eye. The
photographer can cause redeye by positioning the subjects so that
the backs of their eyes will reflect light back to the camera. Try
to avoid having them in the center of the frame. Pulling subjects
away from the wall might even increase red eye slightly, but what
may help a bit would be to take the pictures in a brightly lit room.
This will require less fill light from the flash, not eliminating
red eye, but making it less intense. When I've forced the flash to
operate at full power, some really demonic eyes have resulted.
While I also have a D50, the above should apply to any camera. The
best way to avoid the problem with a D50 would be to get an external
flash and mount it, not on the camera, but further away on a
bracket. The bracket will also make the camera + flash better
balanced and easier to hold. I have an SB-800, but the more
inexpensive and slightly less powerful SB-600 would do just as well
for almost all types of shots. The SB-400 is even cheaper, but it's
much more feature limited than the others.
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

me RemoveThis @mine.net wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:51:27 GMT, in rec.photo.digital PinkFloyd43
> <pinkFloyd43 RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
>> dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
>> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the
>> past few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>
> Look at the exif data from old and new photos and see what settings have
> been changed. Otherwise do a full rest back to factory defaults.

Flash compensation perhaps got turned up. Press the flash button & turn
the command dial while looking at the top LCD screen. Even if that
wasn't the cause, turning down the flash should improve those problems.
Less flash usually looks better if you can manage a hand holdable
shutter speed, and turn up the ISO if that's not working.
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

"PinkFloyd43" <pinkFloyd43.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3fW8j.15152$D44.2501@trnddc04...
> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
> dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the past
> few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>
> Any help is appreciated

I almost always use external flash with my Nikon DSLRs and have never had a
single case of redeye. But keep in mind that redeye is caused by a shallow
angle of flash > eye > lens. Therefore if the flash is too close to the lens
axis *or* the subject is at a greater distance, likelihood of redeye is
increased. Assuming that you've been using the D50's built-in flash all
along, if you're seeing a lot of redeye where you weren't before, I would
suspect that you've changed something in the situation, e.g. shooting people
at a greater distance. The D50's built-in flash when popped up is far enough
away from the lens axis that I wouldn't expect redeye to be a problem,
unless shooting at subjects too far away.

As for the dark shadows, that also must be related to the situation in which
you're shooting. The camera can't produce excessively dark shadows all by
itself, and nothing in your comments suggests that there's anything wrong
with your D50. If the background is far behind the subject, then with a
single on-camera flash you're going to get a lot of dark shadow. This is
pretty much an inevitable limitation when using flash on the camera.

Neil
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

"ASAAR" <caught DeleteThis @22.com> wrote in message
news:ivf8m3dei19n713bmdpi54s4bk0071d9vg@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:51:27 GMT, PinkFloyd43 wrote:
>
>> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
>> dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
>> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the
>> past few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>
> Red Eye shouldn't really increase if the camera is defective.
> It's caused both by the camera and the photographer. The camera, if
> its lens is too close to the flash. This doesn't change with the
> built-in flash. It could have changed if you were previously using
> an external flash, as the greater distance from the flash to the
> lens would have minimized or eliminated the red eye. The
> photographer can cause redeye by positioning the subjects so that
> the backs of their eyes will reflect light back to the camera.

You'd think so, yes. But my experience with my little Coolpix compacts
(which of course have the flash *very* close to the lens axis) has been that
redeye is quite unpredictable, often occurring even when the subject is
looking well away from the camera. If the lens can see the person's pupils
at all, there seens to be just about as much chance of getting redeye (or
not) whether they're looking off to the side or directly at the camera.

I seldom use the built-in flash on my DSLRs so can't speak to that.


> Try
> to avoid having them in the center of the frame. Pulling subjects
> away from the wall might even increase red eye slightly, but what
> may help a bit would be to take the pictures in a brightly lit room.
> This will require less fill light from the flash, not eliminating
> red eye, but making it less intense. When I've forced the flash to
> operate at full power, some really demonic eyes have resulted.
> While I also have a D50, the above should apply to any camera. The
> best way to avoid the problem with a D50 would be to get an external
> flash and mount it, not on the camera, but further away on a
> bracket. The bracket will also make the camera + flash better
> balanced and easier to hold. I have an SB-800, but the more
> inexpensive and slightly less powerful SB-600 would do just as well
> for almost all types of shots. The SB-400 is even cheaper, but it's
> much more feature limited than the others.

Yes, much more limited and also the SB-400 doesn't sit much farther away
from the lens axis than the camera's own pop-up flash. So I would expect
little if any benefit as far as avoiding redeye is concerned, except that it
does have some bounce capability.

I have an SB-400 but rarely use it. Even on my compact, lightweight D40 I
prefer to use the SB-600.

Neil
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

"PinkFloyd43" <pinkFloyd43.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3fW8j.15152$D44.2501@trnddc04...
> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
> dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the past
> few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>
> Any help is appreciated
Red eye is caused by the closeness of the built in flash to the lens axis.
The best solution
(which may still result in some red eye) is to use a separate flash gun on a
flash bracket.

Jim
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:27:35 -0500, Neil Harrington wrote:

>> Red Eye shouldn't really increase if the camera is defective.
>> It's caused both by the camera and the photographer. The camera, if
>> its lens is too close to the flash. This doesn't change with the
>> built-in flash. It could have changed if you were previously using
>> an external flash, as the greater distance from the flash to the
>> lens would have minimized or eliminated the red eye. The
>> photographer can cause redeye by positioning the subjects so that
>> the backs of their eyes will reflect light back to the camera.
>
> You'd think so, yes. But my experience with my little Coolpix compacts
> (which of course have the flash *very* close to the lens axis) has been that
> redeye is quite unpredictable, often occurring even when the subject is
> looking well away from the camera. If the lens can see the person's pupils
> at all, there seens to be just about as much chance of getting redeye (or
> not) whether they're looking off to the side or directly at the camera.

I've also gotten shots with intense redeye when the subject was
looking in a direction 90° off from the lens axis. I meant that
placing the subject away from the center of the frame might help
reduce the amount of light reflected back to the camera.
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

Paul Furman wrote:
> me.RemoveThis@mine.net wrote:
>> On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:51:27 GMT, in rec.photo.digital PinkFloyd43
>> <pinkFloyd43.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE
>>> and dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall,
>>> etc but
>>> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the
>>> past few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>>
>> Look at the exif data from old and new photos and see what settings have
>> been changed. Otherwise do a full rest back to factory defaults.
>
> Flash compensation perhaps got turned up. Press the flash button & turn
> the command dial while looking at the top LCD screen. Even if that
> wasn't the cause, turning down the flash should improve those problems.
> Less flash usually looks better if you can manage a hand holdable
> shutter speed, and turn up the ISO if that's not working.
This is the one answer that sounds reasonable to me. I should go
ahead and purchase a decent flash. Thanks for the information!
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

PinkFloyd43 wrote:

> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE
> and dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall,
> etc but started thinking that something could be wrong with the
> camera as the past few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and
> shadows?
>
> Any help is appreciated
Use flash away from the camera. Even better, try to not use flash at
all.


--
Neil
reverse ra and delete l
Linux user 335851
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

"PinkFloyd43" <pinkFloyd43.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3fW8j.15152$D44.2501@trnddc04...
> Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
> dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
> started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the past
> few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>
> Any help is appreciated

I've wondered about contact lens and flash since taking a side on shot of
someone and getting a protruding red-eye appearance.
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question 

On Dec 16, 1:57 am, "N" <N....TakeThisOut@onyx.com> wrote:
> "PinkFloyd43" <pinkFloy....TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:3fW8j.15152$D44.2501@trnddc04...
>
> > Had the camera for 1 year plus, recent photos have been show RED EYE and
> > dark shadows badly. I understand to pull subject away from wall, etc but
> > started thinking that something could be wrong with the camera as the past
> > few months seems like I have TONS of red eye and shadows?
>
> > Any help is appreciated
>
> I've wondered about contact lens and flash since taking a side on shot of
> someone and getting a protruding red-eye appearance.

Contact lenses shouldn't be a problem. Contacts may produce more
highlight, but that is not the same as red eye, which is a
retroreflection of the retina. However, the better the subject's eyes
are focused on the camera/photographer, the more intense the red eye.
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D-50 Question