I had an old friend from the UK visit us, and she had this habit of closing her eyes whenever pictures were taken with flash. My brother took six pictures in a row - all of them had her with her eyes shut!
Any tips regarding photographing such subjects?
Sunglasses perhaps?
Preflash (sometimes called redeye flash)....the little mini flashes give them a chance to adjust.
Try not to take photos of people dead on.Use side views, profiles, views, etc. Software fixes get rid of red eye very nicely if you have it.
--Don
Don is very right in what he says. I have a problem with pictures as well, everytime I see the camera pointing at me, immedately tend to go back my face, and a beautiful, bright jowl appears. It is just instinctive. When my husband says, just smile at me with the camera in his hands I start laughing and go blushed. It's horrible... When I have pictures taken without me noticing, my face is relaxed, and the pictures turns a bit better.
Just my personal experience
Here's a tip my daughter, a professional performer, gave me. It works almost every time. Have all in the group close their eyes and lower their heads. On the count of three have them quickly look up, open their eyes and smile. Click it quick!
My wife is famous for having closed eyes in pictures. I used to have to take five or six to get one with her eyes open. With this technique my open versus closed eye ratio has increased significantly.
In my experience, the red eye preflash causes more trouble than it's worth. By the time the thing has quit flashing my subjects have moved or closed their eyes thinking the shot has been taken. In my wife's case, she closes her eyes every time the red eye flash starts. Red eye is a lot easier to fix than closed eye! I disable this feature on my cameras and better yet I bought an external flash which takes care of the problem in most all cases.
Nice tip, Puck.
Are you a hockey fan?
Welcome!
Good tip Puck, I use something similar which is just eyes closed and open on the count of three. I tend to do this if it is bright sunlight and if I'm using a reflector as it can be rather dazzling to keep looking with "big eyes" in that kind of light.
Good tips everyone, thanks!