Christmas has come and gone and you download your photos from the camera. Wow! You find the perfect photo, everyone smiling, no-ones blinking… but the camera flash has resulted in some red eyes coming up. Oh, so close. You’re forced to press the dreaded delete button or settle for a photo that is “almost perfect”. Well, listen in, because this will be a scenario of the past after reading this.

First off, you will need to download TheGimp (http://www.gimp.org/) which is a free photo editing piece of software. To make things easier, install this script (http://www.gimpguru.org/download/red-eye.scm) to help you remove those nasty red-eyes. To install it, simply download and then move into the “scripts” folder inside TheGimp directory on your computer.

Okay, so now fire TheGimp up and then open up the photo you would like to remove the red-eye from. Zoom in on the eyes you would like to change. This makes it easier to work with. Using the rectangle select tool, make a small rectangle on the red section of one of the pupils. Run the script “Script-Fu/Selection/Red Eye” and then edit the settings until you get something you like. It’s recommended to work with a setting of 10% Red, 60% Green and 30% Blue to start with, and then adjust from there to whatever looks best for that particular photo.

This process involves a bit of trial and error; if you are unhappy with the results, use CTRL and Z to undo and then try again until you come up with a result that makes you happy. Once it looks good, repeat the process by selecting the red section of the other pupil and use the same settings as you did on the first pupil. Presto! The photo is finally perfect