One of the easiest ways to make a face really stand out in a photograph is to brighten the subject’s eyes. This is a quick and simple photo retouch used by professionals. You can use this technique on any animal eyes in pictures. Here we begin.
- Have a prepared picture with “eyes”. Launch Photoshop and open that picture in the program.
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Step 2
Next, duplicate background layer. Change “blending” mode of the new layer to Screen.
With the layer still highlighted, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All.
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Step 3
Select the Layer Mask. Select a paintbrush and choose “white” for the paint color. Paint over the eyes, make sure the Screen layer is exposed.
If you accidentally paint outside the eyeball, change your paintbrush color to black then paint over the overlapping area.
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Step 4
With both eyes exposed, lower the opacity of the layer to 45%. If the eyes are still too bright, take the opacity a little lower to 30%, and so on.
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Step 5
If the pupils look unnatural with the overlay, select Layer Mask and set your foreground color to black. Next, choose the paintbrush tool and resize the brush to a smaller one of the irises. Drag and hold your cursor directly over the iris of the eye, click once.
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Step 6
Go to Edit > Fade Brush Tool before you go to anything else. Drop the opacity to around 70% to bring back some of the original lightness. Adjust lightness accordingly to your taste or until the eye looks natural to you. Click OK. Repeat process for the other eye.
Save your file in the end of session.
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Step 7
This technique is quick and effective. You will find that it becomes even easier after you practice a few times. You can use these instructions on almost any photographs where the subject’s eyes are present.