Why We Make Eyes Pop in Photoshop Elements
Why We Make Eyes Pop in Photoshop Elements
Bright Eyes
There are hundreds of sayings about the eyes. Things like “eyes are the windows to the soul” and the like. In portrait photography, the eyes are THE focal point. This is why photographers often spend a lot of time setting up their lights to illuminate the eyes.
Unfortunately, sometimes you just don’t get the lighting quite right or even with awesome lighting you may still want the extra impact of brighter eyes.
When we say we want the eyes to “pop,” we mean we want them to “pop off the page” so to speak. We want the eyes to stand out and grab attention. This means brighter and more vivid color compared to the rest of the photo.
This tutorial is written using Photoshop Elements 12 but should work with any version. You can practice with this photo by downloading it here: makeeyespop-practice.png
Select the Eyes
Using your favorite selection tool, select the eyes of your model. Include the whites of the eyes as well as the colored iris. As always, don’t forget to refine the edges to feather in the selection. Feathering your selection helps ensure no harsh effect edges. Remember that in PSE11 and PSE12 the refine edge interface has undergone a drastic change.
To expand or contract the selection area you will now use the shift edge slider and this works on a percentage scale instead of simply increasing/decreasing by pixels.
Create an Eyes Only Layer
While not absolutely necessary, creating a new layer from our selection allows us to easier make adjustments to the selection area and effect strength later on. It is a quick extra step to make your life easier further in the process.
The simplest way to create the new layer is to press Ctrl-J while the eye selection is active.
Now we are ready to make those eyes pop off the page. Make sure the eyes only layer is highlighted and then create a Brightness/Contrast adjustment level by your favorite method (mine is to click the two-tone circle icon above the layers display and select Brightness/Contrast).
When the Brightness/Contrast interface pops up, click the small box in the bottom left corner. This will make the adjustment apply ONLY to the layer directly beneath it, in this case the eyes only layer.
Now, use the brightness and contrast sliders to add lots of impact to those eyes easily. Just remember that too much will ruin the photo faster than having no adjustments at all in the first place. Use a light touch when selecting the adjustment amount.
Here is why I had you go to the trouble of creating an eyes only layer. Now you can easily remove bits of the selection area with the eraser tool if you went too wide and the skin around the eyes is too light. You can also change the layer opacity and experiment with various layer blend modes such as soft light and overlay.
Like almost everything in Photoshop Elements, there are numerous ways to make the eyes pop but the one I just showed you is the quickest and easiest, in my opinion. If you want to try other methods I suggest trying out selective burn and dodge where you can simply “paint” on brightness. Or you can try a hue/saturation adjustment to your eye selection for another very effective option when the eyes are already bright enough but need more color to really pop.
Related:
Bright Eyes
There are hundreds of sayings about the eyes. Things like “eyes are the windows to the soul” and the like. In portrait photography, the eyes are THE focal point. This is why photographers often spend a lot of time setting up their lights to illuminate the eyes.
Unfortunately, sometimes you just don’t get the lighting quite right or even with awesome lighting you may still want the extra impact of brighter eyes.
When we say we want the eyes to “pop,” we mean we want them to “pop off the page” so to speak. We want the eyes to stand out and grab attention. This means brighter and more vivid color compared to the rest of the photo.
This tutorial is written using Photoshop Elements 12 but should work with any version. You can practice with this photo by downloading it here: makeeyespop-practice.png
Select the Eyes
Using your favorite selection tool, select the eyes of your model. Include the whites of the eyes as well as the colored iris. As always, don’t forget to refine the edges to feather in the selection. Feathering your selection helps ensure no harsh effect edges. Remember that in PSE11 and PSE12 the refine edge interface has undergone a drastic change.
To expand or contract the selection area you will now use the shift edge slider and this works on a percentage scale instead of simply increasing/decreasing by pixels.
Create an Eyes Only Layer
While not absolutely necessary, creating a new layer from our selection allows us to easier make adjustments to the selection area and effect strength later on. It is a quick extra step to make your life easier further in the process.
The simplest way to create the new layer is to press Ctrl-J while the eye selection is active.
Now we are ready to make those eyes pop off the page. Make sure the eyes only layer is highlighted and then create a Brightness/Contrast adjustment level by your favorite method (mine is to click the two-tone circle icon above the layers display and select Brightness/Contrast).
When the Brightness/Contrast interface pops up, click the small box in the bottom left corner. This will make the adjustment apply ONLY to the layer directly beneath it, in this case the eyes only layer.
Now, use the brightness and contrast sliders to add lots of impact to those eyes easily. Just remember that too much will ruin the photo faster than having no adjustments at all in the first place. Use a light touch when selecting the adjustment amount.
Here is why I had you go to the trouble of creating an eyes only layer. Now you can easily remove bits of the selection area with the eraser tool if you went too wide and the skin around the eyes is too light. You can also change the layer opacity and experiment with various layer blend modes such as soft light and overlay.
Like almost everything in Photoshop Elements, there are numerous ways to make the eyes pop but the one I just showed you is the quickest and easiest, in my opinion. If you want to try other methods I suggest trying out selective burn and dodge where you can simply “paint” on brightness. Or you can try a hue/saturation adjustment to your eye selection for another very effective option when the eyes are already bright enough but need more color to really pop.
Related:
