You bet! With a red eye photo you can identify retinoblastoma, which is a highly malignant childhood eye cancer affecting infants and children up to age 5. It can spread to the brain if left untreated, causing blindness and even death. I have done this a few times with my son ever since I read about it.
Red Eye Pictures...looks normal!
I’m sure everyone knows how to take a red eye photo–working in a lab, I know I explained how NOT to do it often enough! Dim room, flash close to the camera…of course when you are trying to get a red eye shot, you can’t. The flash can make the tumor(s) visible in photographs, appearing as a white hue rather than seeing the typical red eye effect of a normal, healthy eye. You know when eyes are different angles the reflection back can differ in each eye, but this is pretty distinctive. Here are some sites I found with more info, and some samples…
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26437081/
- http://www.retinoblastoma.net/
- http://retinoblastoma.com/retinoblastoma/
- http://www.cbpc.ca/ClickNews0803-1.pdf (see page 3 in this pdf)
(posted by Rachel)
December 22, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Hi! (no need to publish this comment, I just wanted to say THANKS!). I happened across your site when I was looking at other tags for Retinoblastoma. I run the http://www.rbne.org Retinoblasotma New England site on wordpress, and came across your post. THANK YOU so much for raising awareness about this on your site. I just recently posted that this is the “time of year” when people take lots of photos of their children, and these photos can help save their lives!
To note, sometimes the photo does come back with red eye — the angle to catch leukoria (that white reflex) has to be just right. I have some photos in which it never even shows up at all – even the days before my daughter was diagnosed.
This is great that you’re raising awareness in the professional photo industry! Thank you!!!