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I would like to assume it was a chemist/engineer developing color flash photography who knew better.

You never know. And it’s not like that would be an easy thing to predict.

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I mean, maybe, but I’d like to assume OP’s thought! That would have been hilarious!

Well if he created the first photo he must be smart enough to understand. If not they all will be subject to the Spanish inquisition.

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

Unless the person was scientifically minded vs superstitious...

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition

They’d still freak out though. Like yeah eventually they’d be like “well there’s gotta be some reason for this.” But there would be a moment of “Jesus what the fuck?”

It wasn’t necessarily the first person to make a color photo who first saw it. And I’m not saying like 100% fully believe the person is possessed.

Optics engineer: Hmm, their eyes picked up the flash. Should we redesign to try to fix that?

Product designer: Nah, people will want a camera with the flash built in.

People in the past weren't stupid. They were smarter than the kind of person who thinks that simply being of an earlier time makes you stupid.

I assumed someone saw red-eye in real life first and then tried to capture it.

Does it show up in real life?

Look, I’m not saying they shouted “witch” and burned them at the stake (especially considering this was like mid-1900s?) but they’d be freaked out. Hell, people still believe in ghosts now and a good bit of that is still from camera stuff

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>(especially considering this was like mid-1900s?)

Somehow, it's both a century before you think and a lot more recent than you think.

I’m talking about color film being common. Is that more recent?

Yes! I was once laying down kind of parallel with an open window talking to a friend who screamed mid sentence when I tilted my head a certain way haha. She then realized what was happening and took a video so I could see! Super weird but pretty cool

Oh wow! I always thought it was something to do with cameras picking up light in a different way than we do. But I guess I was mixing up film cameras with cheap digital cameras that don’t filter IR.

I guess it has something to do with the angle of the flash and how we don’t usually see each others eyes at the right angle and lighting for something like that.

Edit: thank you for answering my question. Other people on here don’t seem to have much patience

I mean, I used to think that when I was little lol I remember specifically my cousin had a picture of her dog in her room with that effect and it creeped me out so bad for some reason

Camera flashes go way back to the glass-plate era, so it would have been grey-eyes at first, and people would have realised that it was a reflection of the flash.

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Not quite the same but there were churches that believed cameras would steal your soul.

Source

You think for colour photos, the scientists took one and thought "fuck it good enough to take out to the public." There were probably months, if not years of testing. Somewhere in that time, they def came across this issue.

Oh good point. Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I at least though a scientist would be like “Jesus, what is with your eyes!” But that’s while they’re also testing anyway so they’ve probably seen worse stuff already. Also I didn’t consider how creepy negatives are already.

This is a great thing to understand. People have this misconception that humans are much smarter now purely because of technological advances

It's amazing how easy things are to predict when you understand the science behind it.

Or maybe just assumed there is something wrong with the camera. Not all people believe in being possessed and stuff

1890s was when it became available outside of experimental stuff.

The optical stuff behind red eyes was understood before film capable of storing color was invented.

Thank you

I would assume they would test it on more than just one person and not draw the conclusion from that.

I’m not trying to say everyone was superstitious. Like, I don’t mean 100% believing someone is possessed and cowering in fear. More like “what the hell is with your eyes”

I’m not taking about drawing conclusions. I’m talking about immediate gut reaction.

I’m not talking about full belief. Just initial reation

Yeah no problem! I see you’re getting downvoted for asking the question… sometimes human beings don’t know things until they ask. Happy to share some insight! It’s definitely the angle of the light/flash.

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Thanks! I wish people actually read the comments before posting. Then they’d know plenty of people already corrected me

Edit: also I wish people wouldn’t take me so literally. I’m not trying to say early photographers were cowering in fear at the thought of demons.

And on top of that, even if the literal “first” people to see it knew, it doesn’t mean they knew to inform consumers. They may have though, “eh, they’ll be smart enough to not freak out” and then maybe consumers freaked out.

Yeah. But a lot of times science is like “whoa, that’s freaky! I wonder why that happens”

That's not what your post conveys

Wow, this comment section really turned on OP...

:I

1600 upvotes for the post and most of my comments in the negatives lol. I guess only people who wanna correct me go into the comments.

And they took it so literally lol

Welp. Bad phrasing on my part though.

Also I feel like Reddit there’s some sort of dichotomy of “people who think about everything rationally” and “people who believe in dumb shit”. Or maybe I’m just trying to justify why so many people felt the need to correct me

>I guess it has something to do with the angle of the flash and how we don’t usually see each others eyes at the right angle and lighting for something like that.

I was told its because the flash bounces off the back of our eyes back into the camera, cameras with an anti red eye shines a light into your eye before the flash so your eyes contract in reaction and so less likely for the flash to bounce out compared to if they were dilated

Ironically, I’m usually annoyed by people who assume people in the past are dumb (it’s crazy how much people over-exaggerate how bad the Middle Ages are). Guess I’m the dumb one this time though

Wow, that’s really interesting! And we don’t usually look at people getting light shined right into their eyes so we rarely see it outside of photos

Yeah I guess the people making it would notice. But the consumers wouldn’t all know what it is.

Hell, there’s still people who believe in ghosts because of “light orbs” in pictures. And more recently video compression has led people to believe in lizard person conspiracies

I dont understand why you are getting so many downvotes, its a funny concept

Thanks. And there’s much dumber things people post on this sub. They probably get their fair share of corrections though.

Oh, and remember when people used to say “when you wish upon a star, that star is billions of light years away and is dead by now.”? That was so easily disprovable but it went around the internet so much

Based on the "8th grade test from 1895" (I think that is the year) that is floating around the internet, I think it is fair to say modern day people are the stupid ones.

Found it-

https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/p_test/1895_Eightgr_test.htm

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Was hoping this was a link to Crocodile Dundee. :)

God I want that meme to come back, same with gnome

PSA: if you take a flash-photo of a child and they show white-eye rather than red-eye, this is an indicator of a cancer called Retinoblastoma - you should ensure they see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinoblastoma

They are, though. Every time you have your picture taken, a doorway in your soul allows a demon in. Or am I misunderstanding something.

There's lots of funny stuff you can imagine people discovering. Like imagine being the guy who discovered popcorn. Sitting around one evening and all of a sudden supper explodes.

>A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

At least one, probably.

>Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe.

Morse is that detective off the TV, Whitney was that woman who wants to dance with somebody, Penn is that magician who works with Teller, Howe is the former manager of AFC Bournemouth.

No way. I'd just present it at my next "Vampires Are Real" News conference.

Jeez, I get it. It’s a dumb post.

i remember finding a weird website/blog of people who thought little “orbs” of lights in photos were spirits

Yeah, that’s pretty common among people who believe in ghosts

Next?

Unlikely as that person would have been at the forefront of optical science and known in a second that they were seeing a reflection off the back wall of the eyeball.

Morse- Invented the telegraph,hence Morse Code

Whitney- Cotton gin,would have tanked the South's economy if they hadn't done it with the war

Fulton-No idea

Lincoln-President

Penn-No idea

Howe-No idea

The fact I remember any of that would shock my teachers I'm sure.

Yeah, dust particles in the air.

>1600 upvotes for the post

I'm sorry to inform you of your wrongness, but it's more than that now.

And y'know, probably had flashlights and seen that happen before

Don’t even apologize to these grifters. OP had no reason to take this post so seriously but comment sections on Reddit tend to be full of the sensitive types. One look at their profile tells you why they’re really triggered by your post

Oh no!

Well the lizard thing is more because the elite class is made of almost all lizards

This is amazing

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Is this only true in children?

Penn- Pennsylvania, Howe might be General George Howe (no idea what he did), and I want to say Fulton invented something.

it's likely William Penn

Why is there a conspiracy for everything else on the planet, but not that?

Article says “almost exclusively in children”

Looking at you, Obama.

Redditors do be obnoxious fucks most of the time. Pay it no mind.

You should've just rolled with it. "My child, offer the spine of your firstborn to me for unimaginable riches and power"

This is the sort of thing I hoped to see in the comments, not all this camera technobabble!

What’s worse is knowing that a whole lot of people won’t even know what this is.

Product designer: we’ll just have the software remove it

Software engineer: 😒

I imagine it was more like “oh, looks like humans also do the reflective eye thing that we see in dogs and owls and stuff when we shine lights on them”

Well you can't really prove ghost don't exist, there is evidence besides "orbs"

I came here to make sure this was noted. Even with our new fancy phone cameras make sure you sure flash occasionally with your child to make sure you are monitoring for this! If you see it have it investigated immediately, this is not one of those thing you can wait on.

Yes it’s a childhood cancer. Any adult can get a childhood cancer but it is very rare. For example one of my family members is dying of Ewing’s cancer currently.

Pretty sure the first person to get camera flashed was burned at stake or was that fake

Wonder how many kids these days haven't ever seen that effect. It must be like 15 years since I used a digital camera that did that.

I think “humans exhibiting qualities typically seen in animals” is still pretty creepy to some people. Look at vampires and werewolves for instance.

Dr Mr Munshi would reject such concept.

>!...nobody's gonna get this reference, right?!<