Aubri+Applegren+and+Emily+Cassulo

Eye Color Effects on Red Eye By Aubri Applegren and Emily Cassulo 1st and 2nd hour

Purpose: The phenomenon known as red eye, effects many photographers' businesses throughout the world. The purpose of this experiment is to figure out if the subject's eye color effects red eye. We chose this topic because we were very interested in learning more about red eye. From researching our topic, we learned that the red color comes from the light that reflects off the retinas in our eyes. Humans don't have a tapetum lucidum layer in their retinas so when you shine a light at them there is no reflection, unlike animals (HowStuffWorks, Inc 1998- 2012). The flash from a camera is bright enough to cause a reflection off of the retina. When red eye appears in photos, you see the red color from the blood vessels nourishing the eye (HowStuffWorks, Inc 1998- 2012). People with gray or blue eyes tend to suffer from red eye more than people with brown eyes. This is because of the decreased amount of melanin in their irises. Less melanin allows more light to pass to the retina (Photography.com, 2012). More light that hits the retina causes the subject to have red eyes in the resulting photo. We plan to take pictures of people with a digital camera, the flash on, in a dark room, straight on, about five feet away, and two pictures per person to accumulate as much red eye as possible based on our background information. We will also find as many people with different eye colors as we can. To meet our needs, and to make this project reliable, we will need to gather three girls of each colored eyes (blue, hazel, brown) and three guys of each colored eyes (blue, hazel, brown). All people participating in this project will not be allowed to take their picture with contacts in. Then we plan on taking their pictures one by one and collecting data. Once we have all of our data, we will draw conclusions based on our information collected. Our experiment will further the investigation on how eye color effects red eye in photos.

Hypothesis: If we take pictures of people with the following eye colors: blue, hazel, and brown, then the information will show that people with blue eyes tend to have more red eye effect, due to the melanin in the eye than, people with brown and hazel eye color.

Materials: -Camera with flash -Dark room -3 girls with blue eyes -3 boys with blue eyes -3 girls with hazel eyes -3 boys with hazel eyes -3 girls with brown eyes -3 boys with brown eyes (Total of 18 People)

Procedure: 1. Collect all of our materials 2. Constuct the people to take off their glasses or take out their contacts (if they have any) 3. Take pictures one by one, straight on, in a dark room 4. Upload the pictures onto the computer 5. Print out each picture 6. Compare and analyze the amount of red eye in each photo 7. Draw conclusions based on our results

Analysis: We discovered that taking close up pictures will not project any red eye in the photos. We then concluded taking pictures from a distance will increase the amount of red eye. Our hypthosis was correct because the results came out as expected. Blue/hazel eyes produced more red eye in the pictures. People with brown eyes created a limited amount of red eye. There is always an amount of red in every color. Due to this, the data may be misleading.

Conclusion: Our hypthosis of: If we take pictures of people with the following eye colors: blue, hazel, and brown, then the information will show that people with blue eyes tend to have more red eye effect, due to the melanin in the eye than, people with brown and hazel eye color, is correct. By using our data table shown, you can determine someone's eye color by the amount of red in their eyes. If the number is less than 120, the eye color would be brown or close to hazel. Above 120 and below 170 the eyes would be considered hazel. Any number above 170 would be expressed as the color blue.

Limitations:

Three Errors- 1. Took the pictures too close 2. Using a camera with a red eye filter 3. Having too much light

Three Solutions- 1. Increased the distance between the camera and the person 2. Chnaged to a non-red eye filter camera 3. Decreased the amount of light

New Hypothesis- If we take pictures in a dark room, from a distance of people with the following eye colors: blue, hazel, brown, then the results will show that people with blue or lighter color eyes tend to have more red eye in photos than people with hazel, brown or darker colored eyes.

Data Table: Bibliography:
 * Girl/Boy || Amount of Red Eye ||
 * Girl 1 Blue- Ashlyn || 184 ||
 * Girl 2 Blue- Kaitlyn || 176 ||
 * Girl 3 Blue- Kylie || 180 ||
 * Boy 1 Blue- Dylan || 169 ||
 * Boy 2 Blue- Trey || 210 ||
 * Boy 3 Blue- Brock || 215 ||
 * Girl 1 Hazel- Claire || 120 ||
 * Girl 2 Hazel- Paige || 133 ||
 * Girl 3 Hazel- Sadie || 126 ||
 * Boy 1 Hazel- Brandyn || 171 ||
 * Boy 2 Hazel- Brennan || 178 ||
 * Boy 3 Hazel- Elijah || 171 ||
 * Girl 1 Brown- Maddy || 114 ||
 * Girl 2 Brown- Ceci || 110 ||
 * Girl 3 Brown- Maggie || 107 ||
 * Boy 1 Brown- Aaron || 102 ||
 * Boy 2 Brown- Lucas || 92 ||
 * Boy 3 Brown- Andrew || 97 ||

"Why Do People Have Red Eyes in Flash Photographs?" //HowStuffWorks//. N.p., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. Support. [] "Red-Eye Effect." //Photographycom RSS//. N.p., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. [] "Red Eye *." //Red Eye//. N.p., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. [] "The Science Behind the Red-Eye Effect." //Camera Technica Photography Blog//. Preston Scott, 14 Mar. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. [] "What Causes the Red Eye Effect?" //Yale Scientific Magazine The Nations Oldest College Science Publication//. Bryan Yang, 12 May 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. [] "Definition: Red-Eye Effect; Red Eye; Red-Eye." //Photokonnexion//. N.p., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. []

Questions: What type of camera are you going to use for this? A phone camera, a digital, a polaroid? (Holthe) If you are going to test what affects red eye, might you also want to test several different conditions beforehand to see which condition causes the most red eye with the camera you are using? (R. Johnson) How many subjects are you going to use? (Mr. Kerwin) Does height and age matter in this experiment or is it just students at random? (M. Agner) Make sure to site your sources and not just the link for the website. (Angela Jaszarowski) What about people with green eyes? (Addison Baele)