Quick Tip: Enhancing Wildlife Eyes in Photoshop

On this quick video tip photographer Steve Perry (from backcountrygallery) looks at a simple method for enhancing eyes in wildlife photographs in Photoshop.

We know how important it is to focus on the eyes of your subject. But what if the eyes look doll? On this video Perry looks at two examples of animal shots and demonstrates how to quickly enhance the eyes in the images with a few simple steps.
The technique Perry uses here is based on adding a curve adjustment layer to the image, inverting it (cmd I/Ctrl I) and using a white brush paint over the eye to enhance the catch eye (if it exists). You can do the same thing with a hue and saturation layer to add color to the eye. Just make sure you do not add too much and make the image unrealistic (use the opacity to control the amount).

This is a very simple way of enhancing animals eyes (it might work with human subjects as well). If you are looking for more in-depth guides on how to retouch eyes, we have published many videos on this subject including: “The Ultimate Eye Retouching Guide to Photoshop” by Colin Smith, “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“.

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid. We have a special page dedicated to Perry ‘s videos which you can find here.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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