How to change eye colour in photoshop â Part 1
Changing eye colour can add drastic improvements to your work. It can make or break our photo and even our name as an artist. As always with photoshop, and a plethora of other thigns, there are more than one way of doing things; well, Iâm going to be showing you six mega ways to do it in photoshop in a three part series. Each part will teach you two ways to do it. Well, without further a due, letâs make those eyes pop!
Note: if you want to know more about the photoshop tools shortcut keys that will be used, you can view them here and also download a free image of them.
Â
This tutorials is done in Photoshop CS3 but can be done in CS4 and CS5. How to change eye colour in photoshop has not been tested with earlier versions of photoshop.
Iâm going to be using a photo by Fernando Milani. Just save and open the image in photoshop below to get underway. Donât forget to double-click the layer to remove its lock and press the combination Ctrl+ to enlarge the canvas. It may look pixelated during, but it wonât be seen in the final outcome. Change the layer name to âfaceâ.
2 Using Quick Mask for our selection
Press B for the brush tool or click the brush icon. You may have to click-and-hold to pick the brush tool if its accompanying tools are selected or press Shift-B to cycle through smoothly.Â
Before even painting on the canvas, press Q to activate the Quick Mask. Now we paint on the eyes!
Donât let the brush go to the edge of the iris, but barely just covering the edges. This is crucial for giving it the professional touch and saves us having to clean it up at the end. Press Q again to deactivate the Quick Mask. Press Ctrl-Shift-I (Select > Inverse) to inverse the selection and copy and paste as you would. Change the layer name to âeyeâ.
Our first method is selective colour. This is one of my favourite features in photoshop. It is soooo powerful and can do so much in one package that would require multiple adjustments with the other adjusters.
We will go through using the non-destructive method. Non-destructive in photoshop circles means not destroying (ie. permanently removing and/or adjusting the pixels).
Click âCreate new fill or adjustment layerâ button and select âSelective Colourâ (no pun intended).
4 Altering Selective Colour
Once selected, the box will appear. For now, just press ok on the box.
Right-click and select âCreate Clipping Maskâ. Please ensure that this adjustment layer is above the eye layer.
Double-click on the box with the octagon to use our selective colour. The images below show the figures necessary for our result. If you canât view the image, or even prefer text, the information is below the following images:
WHITES :: Black -100% Â Â
NEUTRALS :: Cyan +72%, Magenta +6%, Yellow +29%, Black -6%
BLACKS :: Cyan +54%, Magenta +21%, Yellow +35%, +100%
** Keep the Method as 'Relative' not 'Absolute' **
Group the two together in a group called âSelective Colourâ. Before you group them, you will need to duplicate the âeyeâ layer and redo the clipping mask onto one of them.
This is a really quick method to use for all sorts of things. Though the thing to be careful with is: if you push it with this adjustment layer, you can make whatever colour your trying to edit look fake! Unless thatâs the intention.
Using the duplicated eye layer, go through the same methods outlined in step 3 to use the âHue/Saturationâ adjustment layer. Once opened, press ok for now to close it. Clip the adjustment layer to eye layer to proceed.
Double-click on the box with the octagon to use our selective colour. The images below show the figures necessary for our result. If you canât view the image, or even prefer text, the information is below the following image:
** Please ensure the checkbox, 'Colorize' is selected **
Group this using the method outlined at the end of Step 4; though don't prepare for another one, as this is the end for now.
Well, that's it for part one! Stick around for Part 2 and 3 of How to change eye colour in photoshop. What I've taught you isn't just useful for beauty retouches, but even mystique artworks ... to name a few.
Liked my article? Share with the share button below or even Subscribe to our RSS and Follow our Twitter or me, Personia, on Twitter!
For more about the Photoshop Tutorials:
How to change egg colour in photoshop
What are the Photoshop Tools shortcut keys?
How to make a reflection in photoshop
How to make glass in photoshop
How to develop the perfect gradient in photoshop
