Design Crafters

That’s a diagram of the blink reflex. Most of us have that, you know.

But when the camera takes a shot of us blinking, it is fair to say we’re not looking at our best.

If you are taking a group photo for a photo to adapt as a photo Christmas card, there’s a bit about human biology you need to keep in mind.

That would be that some people reflexively blink when they know the shot is being taken. I’m not sure if this is a learned reflex or something we are born with, but I can tell you it looks terrible. I’ve seen some group photos where that blink makes one of the people in the photo look like their eyes are bloodshot, or perhaps they’ve lifted a full glass one too many times in the hours preceding the photo shoot.

Since you don’t want to have glassy-eyed family members or friends in your photo Christmas card, the obvious question would be what can you, as the digital photographer taking the group shot, do to avoid your subject to blink?

MaleKTips offers these two suggestions:

1. If you have to use flash, make sure everyone is ready before you take the photo. Instead of taking just one photo, take two or three photos and plan on using the last one. After a couple of flashes, most peoples’ eyes will get used to the light and they may not blink. However, don’t overshoot with flash, as too much bright light may damage eyes!

2. If at all possible, take your group photo in a well-lit area that doesn’t require flash. Especially with today’s modern digital cameras, you may be able to get away with changing some basic settings such as exposure time (if you can keep everyone still) to get a nice, bright picture. If you plan on doing this, make sure you tell everyone that flash will not be used so they don’t tense up.

(MaleKTips)