brightening eye color tutorial?

neastguy

anyone have the steps to do this in cs3? not whiten , but bring out the eye color... thanks

pathfinder

A very simple way to intensify the eye color is to Select the Iris color with the Magic Wand until you have a satisfactory outline of the iris color of both eyes. Or you can draw around the Irises with the Magnetic Lasso or the Pen tool.

Then use type "O" and bring up the Sponge Tool. If you get the Dodge or Burn tool, hit Shift Key + the O key until you get the Sponge tool. Set the tool bar mode to Saturation and adjust the slider to 10 - 25 % and paint over the selected areas as desired. (Once you have the iris color selected, you could even steepen the curve of this area by duplicating it with CTRL-J and then using Curves in the Layers Palette.)

You can create a duplicate of your image first to do this on an adjustment layer by typing CTRL-J first ( Apple+J on the Mac ), and use the Opacity slider to adjust to taste.

Getting the eyes white will make the color stand out more by itself too, of course.

Nimai

I usually use a Brush with color white, Mode "Color Dodge", and Opacity 20%, and brush over the iris. It really makes highlights pop, and colors vivid. It can be over-done, so I keep it at 20%.
I know that's a technique that I read somewhere, though.

kwcrow

I also use a mask or selection on the iris's. From there you can use the Hue/Saturation to add color to taste and I also like to use unsharp mask to bring some pop or texture to the iris. Set amount to 500%, threshold 0, play with the radius until you get the most effect (.7-2.0 whatever lightens the iris most) and then reduce amount down to what looks best to you. You can get some stunning eyes from this without overdoing it.
-Kevin