Editing Eyes in Photoshop
This tutorial helps with changing eye color and making eyes appear brighter.
Can you tell which one of these is the original pair of eyes? You may be able to narrow it down to two or three, but the answer may surprise you - the bottom one is Liv Tyler's original eye color, changed into four different styles and colors.
The object here is to create a pair of eyes that look plausible. You may be aiming for the ethereal, eerie look (which is what I will be demonstrating,) the really bright, light look, the dark and large look, or maybe just a change in color.
Eyes are a lot easier to edit than things like hair. Changing hair color is a really delicate science - eye color isn't as hard because you have a small area to work on that is surrounded by uncolorable white. The trick is to make it look good.
The best tip for this is DO NOT USE THE AIRBRUSH MODE SET TO NORMAL. Trying to create the iris patters with the brush tool is a lot of work that you don't need to do - the eye is already there for you, as a stock image; using "Overlay," "Color," and "Soft Light," (and also Hard Light if you are darkening the eye a lot) is your best bet.
Overlay has the tendency to increase the saturation of the eye, so that it appears to be really color rich. This is sometimes a good thing, and other times makes your person look like a vampire. It all depends on your picture.
Soft light is more for brightening up the eyes and tinting them a little bit. I used soft light for the second eye set, just going around the pupil with light green. Since her eyes were blue originally, it left the blue edge and just lightened up the center, which makes her eyes very striking.
I used Hard Light and Overlay for the third pair of eyes, using a very dark brown to go over the entire iris. I was careful to leave the iris patterns however, and one can still see them even though her eyes are brown. I also, for this one, had to use the Color mode setting because Overlay made her eyes dark orange instead of brown. Sometimes making the eyes look real is just a matter of decreasing the saturation of the color.
For the purple eyes, I simply used the Color mode set to purple and went over the entire eye. This is the easiest way to change eye color, but it doesn't work if you are trying to color brown eyes light blue. For that, you need a little brightening.
Here's how I made the top set of eyes:
- I started out with the Airbrush tool, with Hardness=0, to the Mode "Color" and picked light green. I decided that I would change the color first so that her eyes would be overpowering. Make sure you are using a small brush size.
- I then went over the color with the Airbrush tool set to the mode "Soft Light," just for the bottom part of the iris. This makes the eyes darker at the top, which creates the illusion of shadowing.
More Tips:
- Your OWN eyes are your best tool here. You are the judge to whether or not the eyes look right. What will make the image better?
- The Modes are there for a reason. You should not have to draw color onto the eye; all you have to do is tint it.
- Working with black eyes is another story. Chances are, you are going to be doing a lot more lightening. If is it absolutely necessary, then go ahead and draw the color on top; just make sure you are extremely careful. Don't color it too much lighter, and then try to go back over it with Soft Light or Overlay set to your original color.
- Don't forget your light source. Make sure you are shadowing in the right places given your light source. If it is universal light, only shade at the top of the iris.
Happy creating!