Flash causing closed eyes?

Flickchick

Hi all

I've spent a bit of time looking through here recently and think some of the stuff posted is just amazing. But I'm a complete newbie and looking for some advice.

When I take photos of some people, their eyes close at the precise time I take the picture. What settings would I need to change on the camera to stop this happening - my family look so much nicer when their eyes are open!

Oh, I'm using a Nikon D40 in case it makes any difference?

Thanks in advance

Masada

what setting are you using to begin with?

Flickchick

I just had it on the original settings and on Auto

Carrigman

It has nothing to do with the settings on your camera. The fact is that there's no foolproof way of avoiding closed eyes. Your best bet is to take several shots in the hope that at least one will have everybody with their eyes wide open. Another thing you could try is to tell the group (or individual) that you will take the shot on the count of 3 and then shoot on 2 (as in "1..2..").

Flickchick

Thanks Carrigman - it's happening with two people in particular and only when i use the flash. I've tried taking a number of shots in succession, but I thought it might be something I was doing. I'll persevere with it (and glue their eyes open!)

Masada

yeah tht sounds like more of a natural reaction than the camera. My Other half is exactly the same,.

Sebzy

Flickchick dose your camera have one of those pre flash things to help with focus if so turn it off it's notorious for making people blink before shots are taken.

_Whimsical_

Sometimes it helps if you tell someone to close their eyes right until you press the button. Then you can catch them in that magic nano second between opening their eyes and closing them again to blink right after the flash! Someone who took photos of children at Santa for a month told me that and I have found it works.
Closing your eyes in reaction to the flash isn't the worst. I know someone who sneezes if she's looking straight in the direction that a flash goes off. It makes for some very unfortunate photos

pete4130

What is happening is that the flash on your D40 is pre firiing before the photo and the main flash to meter the flash output (as it reads how strong the flash is reflected from the subjects and works out how strong to make the flash for the picture and also it reduces red eye in photos. This pre-flash can cause some people to close their eyes just after it fires as the main flash fires and the picture is taken. It happens to my gf 90-95% of the time (once I took 25-30 pics in a row to catch her eyes open and they were shut in all of the photos!).

Plus you have to live with people blinking at the wrong time.

Tell people before hand that there will be 2 flashes and to keep their eyes open until the 2nd flash is over, as most people blink once the first flash goes off.

qwertz

The D40 sends a preflash (or series of preflashes) before the main flash fires. Try manual mode (if available). Also, try disabling red-eye reduction.

Telling people to keep their eyes won't work in a lot of cases because they cannot control the blinking reflex.

PopeBuckfastXVI

yah the red eye reduction fires a few times before pic is taken to close peoples pupils... but it also has the effect of closing some peoples eyes!

Turn it off... you're taking a digital photo... you can fix it on the computer if it happens!

oh and happy new year all!

5uspect

You could go mad and buy a flashgun and use bounce flash!
Alternatively avoid using flash and see about improving the ambient lighting or getting a faster lens like a 50mm f1.8 (or even f1.4 or f1.2)

AnCatDubh

No. Everyone above is wrong. It's definitely a big problem with the D40 - Nikons are notorious for this. To fix - get a hammer............. ok... ok.... just joking - put down that hammer and step away from the D40 mam! ;o) But if you could send your relative back for a full refund that might work !

And for the serious part - The individual(s) probably have sensitive eyes (poor souls) and are probably plagued by this in all photos which use flash - P&S or DSLR. Rather than tricking the subject with the 3-2-1 and shooting at 2 - a variant of this (recommended by scott kelby) is to get them to close their eyes and count 3-2-1 and say 'open'. It generally gets a good eyes wide open shot. I guess they don't see the plash coming. The 3-2-1 trick can work a treat and particularly recommended if shooting groups - i recently did one with 30 people and 30 eyes wide open was the result - i was quite astounded by that. Feels kinda awkward as an instruction to be giving out but it appears to work. Other suggestions mentioned above are worth a try too (eh... other than the one with the hammer ;o).

Good luck with it.

Oriel

If you're taking a shot always take it twice. Simple.
Always use bracketing in the case of exposure.

qwertz

I was about to recommend to use the FV-lock feature but the D40 doesn't support this.

Thirdfox

I own a D40 and sometimes experience this too (I'm personally notorious for my droopy eyes in photos )

The problem is that the iTTL flash system flashes twice (once to meter the scene and determine flash output and the second time with the actual flash). This has nothing to do with red eye reduction (Nikons unlike Canon do not use the series of pre-flashes - they have an onboard led white light).

As for solving the problem you can either use manual flash (no pre-flash) or buy an external flash and try bouncing (although I still get blinkers sometimes with my SB-600 attached). Some people have a quicker reaction than others.

Flickchick

Thanks everyone for the advice.

AnCatDubh - unfortunatly the relatives were not acquired on a sale or return basis, so I have to make do with what I have

I've tried out a couple of different ideas and from what I can tell so far, I think Thirdfox has it pretty much sorted - I turned off the automatic flash and just used the manual one instead - the result being that although the pictures are now quite dull, at least they have their eyes open. So I'm off to find out all about Photoshop to see what I can do about brightening them up.

But thanks again everyone, much appreciated - onwards and upwards!

Thirdfox

You'll find the D40 a very able camera. Especially when paired with an external flash (the SB400 will keep the whole outfit small while giving you bounce flash) - I personally got the larger SB600 to get the swivel function and AF red illuminator.

If you're using manual flash do a google search for tips - the art of manual photography has really been replaced by auto everything. I suppose once you found a good setting you can continue to use it if the lighting situation hasn't changed.

Glad to be of help - I'm sure you'll love the D40 (for all its quirks )