On this video tutorial photographer Nathaniel Dodson (from the website tutvid) continues his series of videos looking at different methods to enhance eyes in Photoshop and this time he explores a way to easily change eye color in Photoshop with a few adjustment layers and a couple of masks.
Dodson looks in this video how to go between brown to blue eyes and back which should help you with more subtle changes.
We start with a quick mask over the eyes followed by a black and white adjustment layer. This will remove all the colors from the eye. Now we add a hue saturation layer (after clicking cmd/ctrl on the mask to re-load the selection) and choose 195 for hue (blue eyes) 6 for saturation and lightness rise by 2.
Make sure you are using the brush in brush and paint in black over the pupil. Again we add an adjustment layer like before and add a level adjustment layer and here it is worth following Dodson’s instructions on the video (11:06 and on in the video). This will make the eye look a little bit more realistic.
Dodson applies basically the same techniques to change the color of the blue-eyed girl and change it to brown (he chooses hue to 20 and saturation to around 40 and lightness to negative 50). Here you will really need to control the catchlights much more than before. There are a few extra steps here if you like to make the eyes look a bit darker and more realistic.
Over the years we have looked at correcting and improving eyes in images on many videos including “How To Brighten, Color and Sharpen Eyes in Photoshop” with photographer Craig Beckta, a Quick Tip: How to Change Eye Color in 1 Minute in Photoshop! by Howard Pinsky, “Retouching Eyes in Photoshop: Color, Brighten and Sharpen” and Creating Realistic Eye Makeup in Photoshop by Aaron Nace, photographer’s Michael Woloszynowicz “How To Brighten Eyes in Photoshop” and Photoshop senior product manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes video on “How to Brighten Eyes in B&W Photos Using Photoshop“. Dodson himself did another eye related video recently called “How to make Eyes Look Amazing in Photoshop CC” which is also worth watching.
You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section. You can also check Dodson’s previous videos here on LensVid.