Quick Fix Monday

Happy Monday!! I'ts my official first day of Spring Break and I thought I would bring you a quick fix tip. I'm planning on bring you this feature once a month, so be sure to check back on Mondays.

This week;s tip is one I learned from a photo forum a couple of years back and I WISH I could remember who gave it...I hate to take credit for things that aren't mine. With that said, here's a quick HOW TO on how to fix eyes that seem dull or dark. All fixes will be done using CS2, but would work in most Photoshop photo editing programs.

In MOST cases, you are going to want to do this fix after you run your actions because the action may cause the eyes to pop already. If the action doesn't brighten the eyes, you may want to try this! Open the photo you wish to "fix."

The action I ran on this was purposely used to give the photo a little bit of a dull look, but I don't like that the eyes seem lifeless. To remedy this, I used the lasso tool to create a a figure eight around the eye area, I then copied this selection by clicking Layer>New>Layer Via Copy OR CTRL-J.

Once I had my new layer I used the b;ending mode, SCREEN to make the layer brighter. As you can see this will make it OVER the top bright but I will take care of that in a minute.

I then used my eraser tool to erase back everywhere around the up to the whites.

After erasing all but the layer right on the eyes, the eyes look like alien-eyes!

Don't worry!! I fix this by adjusting the opacity of the new layer to my liking (around 40-50%). How much depends on your own preference. I prefer a pretty natural look, but some like the eyes to really pop!


And one more look at the before and after...

It's pretty subtle, but it does make a difference!! :)
So, that's it! Pretty easy, huh??!!