Eye Sharpening – Photoshop Tutorial
With this tutorial you can create amazing, bright eyes within minutes.
First retouch, adjust levels and do all necessary colour corrections on your image.
With a Lasso Tool (L) select the eyes (hold Shift key to add to selection). Hit Ctrl+J to copy selection to a new layer. You can copy the whole layer instead of selecting eyes but applying the filter to the large area like this may take a while on slower computers.
Use Smart Sharpen filter on the eyes, the choice of right settings will depend on the size of your file.
Add a layer mask to the sharpened layer, then using a white soft brush on 50% bring back paint only iris’ and pupils to expose the sharpened eyes. Reduce opacity of the layer if it is obviously too sharp.
Using levels brighten the whole picture and then copy mask from previous layer to select only eyes by holding Alt while dragging the sharpened mask (“layer 1″ in the pic) onto the “levels 2″ layer.
With a Colour Balance set desired eye colour, keep “Preserve Luminosity” ticked, again use copy of previously created mask to select eyes only.
Reduce opacity of the colour layer to make the eyes look more natural. Optionally go back to the other masked layers to find the best balance playing with opacity.
And voilà, the image is ready.
Elizabeth
Hello! I absolutely love this feature & would like to use it on a lot of my photos. However there are many, many versions of Adobe Photoshop & your tutorial does not include which version was used to make these alterations. I would hate to spent $100 to $200 on the wrong one so could you specify???? Is it PS Elements 9 or 10 OR PS Premiere 9 or 10. It would be great to only get one or the other instead of spending double to get both. Thank you so much!!!
Elizabeth
Carina
Hi Elizabeth. I just want you to know that I did the same tutorial with almost the same results with PSE10. The difference was that there is no Smart Sharpen, but instead it is Adjust Sharpness in the Enhance menu. Also, when copying the layer mask, there was a mini tutorial here
http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com/photoshop-elements-tip-copy-layer-masks/
which I found did the same thing. Or when you are making the layer there is an option that clips the previous layer mask. Hope that helps!!
Caron
With layering tools, that’s most likely photoshop CS4 or any version in that family
Margot
Thank you for visiting and your comments.
It does not matter which version of Photoshop as all of them have levels, colour balance and smart sharpen filter, even the Photoshop Elements.
Adobe Premiere is for video editing.
Hope it helps.
Magda
Nice and succinctly explained, but please tell me what is wrong with this child’s original beautiful brown eyes. Sharpening works well, but is there any reason green is better….
Margot
Thank you for your comment Magda.
Oh no, nothing wrong with her eyes. I like them in original bluish grey colour better as well… the green colour is overdone for the tutorial purpose.
smashinbeauty
Thank you awesome!
Margot
Thank you!
Lindsay M.
Thank you so much for this. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, I can’t seem to find the smart sharpen filter. Any idea as to where I might find it?
Margot
You can use Adjust Sharpness, it can be found in the Enhance menu. In many ways, it resembles the Smart Sharpen filter of newer Photoshop versions, but it doesn’t allow setting the strength of light or dark edges. So, it is not that smart. Still, it offers the basic sharpening options.
Melissa
As a new user to photoshop, some of these terms are a little “above my head”! Would love to see a more step by step instruction – as I have been trying to get this right for the last hour! Getting lost with layers and the brush tool with lightening! Any good resource to get this?
Thanks!
Margot
Would the tutorial on “how to use mask” be helpful? We are planning to post it soon…
David Wegwart
That was a good read. I like your use of the color balance layer, it makes them pop so much more.
Paulina
sorry but they look fake… some retouching is good but this looks fake
Kassandra
Can u please tell me exactly what photo shop
To get… I’m buying it online so I need the exact title as when
I put in “photo shop” soooo many things come up!
This is amazing! Thanks!(:
Carol
I am using CS3 Extended. Have so many time saving changes come along that I need to fork out the $399 to upgrade to CS6Extended? Can I do these eye transformations with CS3 Extended?
Cassie
PS Elements does not have smart sharpen or color balance layer in it, only the cs versions do.
Eva
I must be a total moron because I just can’t get this to work. I’ve tried it four times and every time I get to this part:
Using levels brighten the whole picture and then copy mask from previous layer to select only eyes by holding Alt while dragging the sharpened mask (“layer 1″ in the pic) onto the “levels 2″ layer.
And it simply doesn’t work. Holding alt while dragging the mask onto the levels layer gives me everything *but* the eyes, not the eyes themselves. I can’t figure out how to change this or what I am doing wrong. Frustrating!
Beth
I found that very hard to follow as well. That’s as far as I got.
Beth
watch this tutortial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS8Kf1q7NlI
maria reininger
i’m using an old photoshop (photoshop 6) and also have light room 4
i don’t have a smart sharpen. suggestion on how to do this with either of these programs?
THANKS!
ps looks good!!!
Jill
These are the dumbest comments I’ve EVER READ lmao is this like a spam commenter ?! Wtf … Seriously?
Kris
Hahahaha. Seriously. I was wondering that part too.
Jodi
What I do is after the eyes are on their own layer info filter<high pass. Then use eraser to remove any extra that's outside if the iris. Then I change the layer style to overlay. Reduce o
Jodi
Use filter high pass then change layer to overlay
Nina
I too, am fairly new to photoshop. So, for those who think that those are the dumbest questions ever, I must disagree for the ones just learning the photoshop program. Lordy, be a little compassionate for someone wanting to learn something new on such a program. I pick this up pretty easy and have learned a lot while following instruction for photoshop, but if you don’t know where to find things, it can be a bit frustrating to say the least and that is just getting familar with the program and using it over and over. I must say I was doing well with these instructions, but I also must say as soon as I got to the adding the layer mask is where I got lost as well. I google almost everything to learn this program and a lot of people write steps assuming everyone that reads them are familar with the program. For newbies it can be quite frustrating. I found the layer mask to add a mask or at least when I went to the layer mask my only option was to “reveal all or hide all” so unless I am in the wrong place, I am not sure from that point on exactly the steps. Everything from that point on seemed to be a bit confusing. Although I must say after doing the first steps up to that point certainly already made a difference in the eyes. Although I must agree I would like to keep my eyes the natural color of the person’s natural eyes, but also enriched. I guess I am off to google some more tutorials to see if I can figure this out completely. Thanks to people like you though who will post things like this for us “newbies” to become more proficient in this program!
Carol
What about using iphoto?
amber
This was a great tutorial and obviously you adjust to taste. The author is just trying to give an example of what you can do with the eyes and was overdone for tutorial purposes.
Now in regards to this being over someone’s head, we’ve all been there. I suggest you learn photoshop basics first and then come back to this tutorial.
Sarah
Nice….but It would be much better if the child ended up with the same color of eyes that he started out with. Hazel to green?
Karla
Reason I have a love hate relationship with social media, blogs etc…. People can type very rude things because they are not in front of an actual human being. That said, I love the pop of the brightened eye in captures. Great tutorial and for those who are beginners hang in there, you’ll get it.
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wowzers
Great way to teach our kids to be ashamed of their apperance. Wasn’t even good enough for Mom & Dad, had to be freaking photoshopped. Ugh.
mom2lild
i was wondering if ne one knows how to do this on paint shop pro 14
vietha shadowz
amazing…..
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Havisgirl1
Is there a video of this? Apparently I’m retarded
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Beth
would you kindly break down the step “Using levels brighten the whole picture and then copy mask from previous layer to select only eyes by holding Alt while dragging the sharpened mask (“layer 1″ in the pic) onto the “levels 2″ layer.” i know how to use levels. I do not understand how you copied just the layer mask. Thanks!
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