Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Show-Stopping Eyes

One of the simplest yet most impressive eye-enhancing techniques is waiting for you over in Chapter 12 (Combining Layers into a Smart Object), which explains how to use sharpening to make eyes stand out. Here in this section, you’ll learn how to enhance and whiten eyes, fix red-eye a bazillion different ways, and even how to fix your furry friends’ eyes.

Enhancing Eyes

A quick and painless way to make eyes stand out and look sultry is to lighten them by changing their blend mode to Screen. This technique enhances the iris and brightens the white bits, as Figure 11-19 shows. To achieve this effect without duplicating the original layer (which increases your file’s size), just use an empty Adjustment layer.

Here’s what you do:

1. Pop open a photo and add an empty Adjustment layer.

   Click the half-black/half-white circle at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Levels from the menu. When the Properties panel opens, single-click its tab to close it (you don’t need to actually make a Levels adjustment; you’re just adding an Adjustment layer that doesn’t automatically change your image).

2. Set the Adjustment layer’s blend mode to Screen.

   Near the top left of the Layers panel, change the drop-down menu from Normal to Screen. When you do, Photoshop makes your whole photo way too light, but don’t worry—you’ll fix it in the next step.

3. Fill the Adjustment layer’s mask with black.

   Peek at your Layers panel and make sure the Adjustment layer’s mask is active (it should have a tiny outline ...