Originally posted by weaponx525 Thank you for your replies. I was wondering whether distance was an issue because the photos that I take that are closer to the subject, ie using the kit lens never had a problem with red eye and the built in flash.
Again, it is all about the angles.
Imagine an eyeball looking straight into your lens from 5 meters away and an eyeball looking into your lens from 1 meter away. Since the lens-to-flash distance remains the same on both, that means there is a greater angle between the eyeball and flash at the shorter distance, hence less chance of red-eye.
In either case, moving the flash farther from the lens-eyeball axis will improve things. In its simplest form, that can be just using a hotshoe mounted flash instead of the built-in flash. Doing things like bouncing the flash off the ceiling instead of firing it straight into your subjects eyeballs will practically guarantee zero red-eye.
Wherever that strong light goes in, it is going to reflect off the retina (picking up red from the blood vessels in the process) and come right back out. Imagine aiming a BB gun straight at a steel wall a few feet away and pulling the trigger. You're going to catch a BB right between the eyes for your trouble. That's the same thing the light from the built-in flash is doing. Now imagine holding the BB gun a few inches higher and aimed at the same spot. The BB is going to ricochet all the same, but it's going to come back and pop you in the throat or chest. In other words....that red-eye ricochet is still going to come out
somewhere....you just have to make it so it doesn't fly straight back into your lens. The more straight-on that line is, the more it's going to hit your lens.
I hope that made sense.