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Photo Correction and Enhancement for Beginners: Part Two

The Evil Red Eye

Print Shop

PhotoShop

Notice how the irises of Maire’s eyes match the stripes of her tee shirt in the top photo? It’s the dreaded “red eye” that you so frequently get when you shoot with flash. There’s also “pet eye” – which comes in various colors.

The best way to deal with these evil-looking reflections from the retina is to avoid them in the first place. More on that later.

You can see from the two bottom pictures that red eye can be corrected; and so can pet eye. The Print Shop correction for red eye is almost as good as what you can get using Photoshop. And it’s soooo much easier. While Print Shop does a good job on red eye; it doesn’t do very well on pet eye.

So if there will be pets in your pictures, you might as well take the time to learn how to correct eye color using Photoshop.

Print Shop

To correct red eye in Print Shop, open the photo. Press the Photo Tools Bar and select Fix Flaws.

Use the + sign on the bottom left of the pop-up box to zoom into the eye area. You may need to use the horizontal and vertical sliders to get both eyes in the center of the workspace.

Then simply follow the steps outlined in the box: 1. Select a Tool – in this case Correct Red Eye; 2. Select a Tool Size – you want a brush that is a bit smaller than the irises you are going to paint over; and 3. “Click on the flaw, as many times as necessary, until the flaw is repaired”.

Then click OK.

Photoshop

If you have Photoshop CS2 or a higher version, there is a red eye correction tool which usually gives pretty good results.

You'll find it in the fly-out box along with the Healing Brush and Patch Tools. With the Red Eye Tool selected, zoom in on the red eyes; click on the red and see what happens. If you don't like the result, undo and play with the settings for pupil size and darken amount in the top tool options bar.

If you still don't like the result or if you have an earlier version of Photoshop, here is how to custom-correct red eye. Open the photo. To be sure you have all the tools that you will need readily available, click on Window and make sure there are check marks beside Tools, Options, Navigator, and Layers.

[I recommend you always keep History on your workspace too. If you overdo something or decide you don’t like a certain effect, just go to the History Folder on your workspace and go back in time to before you went astray.]

Next move your cursor to the Zoom Tool on the Tool Bar (the magnifying glass). Position the cursor on the eye area of the image and click until you have both eyes in the workspace and little else. You want to do both eyes at the same time for efficiency.

Can’t quite get the eyes centered? See the small version of the image in the Navigator Folder? That shows you exactly what part of the picture you have zoomed to.

If the eyes are not in the red box, all you need to do is move your cursor there. A hand will appear. Click and use the hand to move the red box to the part of the image you want to work on.

Select the Eyedropper Tool from the Tool Bar and move the cursor to a point of one iris that is grayish but has a hint of the actual eye color of the subject. Click on it.

Notice that the topmost of the two color squares (foreground and background color) on the Tool Bar now contains the color you selected. If you’re not happy, move the eyedropper and click again to select a different tone.

Click on Layer, then New – Layer 1, OK. This creates a new transparent layer that you can work on without affecting the original image until you’ve got exactly what you want.

Click on the Brush Tool. Go to the Option Bar and select the pixel size to create a brush just right for the size of eyes you are correcting (I used 3 pixels). Moving from left to right on the Option Bar, set the brush to Normal Mode, 100% Opacity and 100% Flow.

Take the brush and paint over the red part of each eye, taking care not to get any paint on the eyelid. It’s OK to cover the white spot in the middle. Just be sure to get all the red out. If you do goof and get some paint on the skin, not to worry. Either use the History Folder to back up a few steps; or use the Eraser Tool to clean up Layer 1.

Now let’s get ready to merge Layer 1 with the original image. First you want to soften the edges of Layer 1. Click on Filters and select Blur, Gaussian Blur. I used a 1 pixel blur since we’re working on such a small area.

Then go to the Layers Folder and click on the box that says Normal. Up pops a box that gives a whole list of options for how the layer blends with the background. Select Saturation.

Notice that the white dots in the center of the eyes are visible again even though you had painted them. Saturation Mode tones down the layer so that the highlights show through; but you give up a bit of color intensity. If the eyes look too gray to you, create another layer as follows.

Click Layer, New Duplicate Layer – Layer 1 copy, OK. Go back to the Layers folder and change the blend mode to Hue. This puts some color back into Layer 1 copy while preserving the highlights. If you’re happy with the corrections, click Layer, Flatten Image; and all three layers will be merged into one. Save your corrected version to a new name.

What Causes the Evil Red Eye Anyway?

If you want to avoid red eye and pet eye in future pictures, it helps to understand what causes them. When you shoot a flash photo of a face straight-on, you frequently capture the flash reflecting off of the retina. In a dark environment (where you are tempted to use the flash), the pupils of your subjects’ eyes are wide open letting in maximum light to see in the dark.

The retina of humans is covered with blood vessels and so the reflected flash shows as red eye. The reflection is more pronounced in people with light eye or hair color and in children.

Some animals, such as cats, dogs and deer, have a structure behind the retina called the tapetum. The tapetum reflects light to improve night vision in these animals. Tapetal color varies from species to species and even breed to breed. Pet eye can be green, blue, yellow, white or red. Red occurs in animals which have no tapetal pigmentation and so the retinal blood vessels are reflected just as in humans.

You’ve probably figured out some ways to avoid red and pet eye already. Avoid using flash if possible. As we’ve seen above, a dark photo can be lightened substantially to bring out detail.

If it won’t ruin the spontaneity of the shot, turn on a few lights first to make your subjects’ pupils contract. Position yourself next to a light. If your subjects are looking at you, their pupils will contract.

Avoid shooting faces straight-on in the dark. Take two shots in quick succession: the first will make the pupils contract; the second should be free of the evil eye. Some cameras have a built-in pre-flash designed to do the same thing.

For more on photo enhancement, visit:

Part One: Bring Out the Details

Part Three: Composition & Enhancement

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