BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Software Techniques, Tips, & Tricks

Photography Question 

Carin Griffith
 

How to Fix Red Eye in Photoshop


 
 
I am having problems fixing red eye on pictures of my son! Please help! (I know that the ideal situation would be to avoid getting any red-eye in my photos in the first place, and for special times I use my Nikon D-70 with SB-600 flash, so no problems there. This red-eye dillema happens occasionally when I use my point-and-shoot for quick photos around the house, etc.) Thanks in advance!


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March 24, 2008

 

Carin Griffith
 
 
 
See photos attached! Thanks!


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March 24, 2008

 

Carin Griffith
 
 
  Carter Red-Eye
Carter Red-Eye
Carter has the "darker red-eye" here, which is easy to fix.

Carin Griffith

 
  Carter Red-Eye - Fixed
Carter Red-Eye - Fixed
His red-eye was fixed with the color-replacement tool, and looks okay.

Carin Griffith

 
  Carter Red-Eye 2
Carter Red-Eye 2
Here, the red is a lighter, brighter red.

Carin Griffith

 
  Carter Red-Eye 2: Not fixed well!
Carter Red-Eye 2: Not fixed well!
Eeek! The color-replacement tool did NOT fix this well!

Carin Griffith

 
 
Okay, maybe these photos will load this time!


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March 24, 2008

 

Richard Lynch
 
 
 
Carin,
Thanks for uploading these examples. As you see from this, red-eye tools will fix some things, but not others. The case you show here is pretty extreme. The tool's natural response is to balance the hot color, but there is just too much brightness in the pupil for this to work as designed. The harsh color will be reduced but there will be some unpredictable behavior as well. Such is the case with 'magic' tools as they can't see to evaluate the image. No matter how clever they might be, they still are based on a cold calculation.

As you say, the best solution is avoidance.

Some things you can try here are more an approach to reduce the brightness and mediate the color.

1. create a new layer at the top of your layers stack.
2. set the layer mode to multiply.
3. choose the brush tool and paint in black over the iris.*
4. lower the opacity of the layer until pleased with the result.

*you can use a hard brush and blur, or a soft brush.

Even this will not solve all red-eye problems and may come with issues of its own. For example, the boy ends up having brown eyes here and from other hints I am guessing his natural color may be blue. The issue may be a residual issue from the intense red that was there...

You might add a Hue/Saturation change as well...You can target the area by Command/Ctrl+click on the thumbnail for the layer you painted on to load the solid area as a selection. I don't cover expressly this in my courses here at BetterPhoto, but all the concepts in and around it which lead to these solutions. I hope that helps!


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March 25, 2008

 

David Boesch
  Hi Carin,

The Photoshop method I use is along the lines of Hue/Saturation that Richard mentioned. I find it to be fairly quick and easy to perform:

1) Select each eye using the lasso tool capturing the entire iris.
2) Although not necessary, I create a new layer (Command J)for safety.
3) Open Hue/Saturation (Command U).
4) Instead of MASTER, choose REDS as the color you wish to modify.
5) Now move the SATURATION slider to the far left until the red is completely eliminated.
6) To darken the pupil, slide the LIGHTNESS control to an appropriate level.

If you've created a new layer you will need to flatten the final image. But that's it!


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April 01, 2008

 
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