Skip to content

Does Flash hurt the Cat’s eyes?

Does flash hurt cats eyes - featured Image

I really love my cat and sometimes it looks so cute when doing some naughty play. I just love to click some pictures of her but the problem is when I took my camera and clicked the shutter button, it turned on the flash as I set it in auto mode. Does camera flash hurt cats’ eyes?

Camera flash does not hurt your cat’s eyes in most cases. If the cat is younger than 3 months and if the flash power is 1/64th power, the flash may affect its eyes. There won’t be any permanent damage to the eyes. Cats have more sensitive eyes than humans and they allow more light in the retina. 

Cats are more sensitive to light than humans. A lot of people believe that cats can see in the total dark, but it isn’t true. Cats need a little low light compared to humans to see things. 

To be more general, cats need 1/6th of the light that a person needs to see. Cats’ eye pupils are so sensitive that they can dilate three times larger than a human’s and it takes more light.

Tapetum lucidum is a layer of the eye lying behind the retina. This tapetum lucidum contributes to the night vision in the animals but not all. So, in the CAT, this layer increases the sensitivity of vision by 44% allowing the cat to see the light in the dark that is imperceptible to human eyes. 

Is Flash power dangerous on cats’ eyes?

The camera’s flash is safe to the cat’s eyes at a normal distance due to some factors like Focus, intensity, and exposure. Continuous usage of flash on your cat’s eyes makes little to no difference if the cat is at a normal distance of between 4 to 12 feet

Most of the modern cameras are designed with ease of use and some precautions that should not damage the retina. 

The Speedlight flash has 70 watts such as Godox V860 and Canon 430 as the famous flashlights. These lights can be used for Indoor and basic outdoor portrait shots. The power of this flashlight is decent enough to look directly at and it isn’t effective to the cat’s eyes. 

Some light units such as the Godox A200 pro have 200 watts lighting, which can cause temporary blurriness to the eyes and may affect the cat’s eyes very little. But outdoors, it isn’t a problem. These lights can be used in Indoor and Outdoor full body shots.

How does a Flash can wash out cat color in the photo?

Eyeshine occurs in many colors as we can see in the animals when we take night photos. So, the colors you see are White, Green, and Red. Green eyeshine occurs in mammals such as cats, dogs, and raccoons. 

Red eyeshine occurs in coyotes, rodents, opossums, and many birds. Cats and dogs are supposed with the red-eye effect. Beginner owners like me are afraid of these colors and as well as flash directly into their eyes. 

There are some conditions, you have to use flash in night-outdoor or low light conditions. If your cat is too close to the flash, it directly triggers into the eyes, and the colors will wash out. If the cat is too fat from the camera, the subject will go underexposure.

Is mobile flash dangerous to the cats eyes?

No. When it comes to mobile flash, the light you use in the mobile phones isn’t a flash but it’s a supplemental light. The light comes on momentarily and the light isn’t bright enough to damage anyone’s eyes. We are talking about the camera flash, studio flash, and outdoor Speedlight.

Flash effect on Cats (Scientifically)

The above picture shows the difference between a human vision and a cat’s vision. Cats cannot see the richness of hues and saturations as humans can and also the viewing angle of cats are slightly wider than us. 

Dr. Martin Stecens (Associate professor in Sensory and Evolution Ecology) said that different animals have different sensitivity to the lights and some species will have their photoreceptors adapted to the dark conditions and hence, the brightness of the light source. 

Any sudden bright light can affect birds and most of the animals and temporarily blinded.

This statement confirms that a lot of animals including birds and cats have a range depending on their age and you should be careful when using camera flashes on cats.

Tips for better flash photography on your cats

Now talks get exciting when we talk about night vision. Cats cannot see fine detail or richness but they have the ability to see in the darkness because of a high number of rods. This is what you should know when taking the picture of the cat, at night using flash. 

Personally, I don’t use flash on my cats, especially at night. Flash can cause temporary blindness in the cat’s eyes. Some researchers say one should not stare at the flash for more than 30 seconds. 

So, how is it different from taking 30 snaps using flash?. You must be careful with kittens especially. If you do not want to hurt your cats but want the pictures, here are two methods you can follow.

1 Keep the cat 4 feet away from the flash

Cats don’t respond well to flash photographs, natural light is the best light source for cats. However, some situations force us to take night pictures of cats and kittens. So, you need some precautions to take.

As a general approach, never try to take your camera too close to the cats. Even though modern cameras are using some easy and safe flashlights, sudden light can affect their eyes temporarily. 

Depending on the flash settings on your camera, night photography uses maximum power for better exposure. In this case, kitten eyes can be affected if you are in close range. 

I was surprised when I used a camera at night in the forest area because none of the animals were attracted or affected by the flash on my camera. Even though I continuously used it, none of them are affected.

The only reason is, I was away from them. Most birds are also continuing their work even though I’m continuously using flash on them. To my surprise, they didn’t even care about the flash. 

2 Try to use flash reflectors/triggers

There are a number of advantages to using a reflector instead of a flash unit and of course it has some limitations. You need a bright light source to use reflectors. Also, you can make some dramatic changes to the photo if you use some colored reflectors. 

To overcome the problem of bounce flash and controlling the flash output from your camera, you can use these reflectors. The best way to get rid of these problems, you can use some wireless flash triggers as well

The best thing is to use these flash triggers. You can use these flash triggers in different directions, and cats’ eyes won’t be affected directly. I was so confused with the problem of forcing the flash into cats’ eyes. Over the long period, we had some dumb triggers for Cameras until I found this awesome flash trigger on Amazon which is very affordable

The goal is to move away from the flash from the camera and the subject to camera communication will be helpful when clicking the pictures. Or, a cable is more reliable if you are fed up with the WiFi connection issues. 

Conclusion

There are various studies that have different opinions on the effect of flash on cats’ eyes. So, how is this different from the babies? Most of the researchers experimented with different powered flashes at different powers.

Flash can be extremely helpful in low light and night photography but up to some extent you have to endure the state. In extreme cases, it was dangerous to use direct flash on cats eyes. However, using flash triggers is the best option to get rid of this. 



CapturingGuide.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.