Skip to main content

Brighten Whites of the Eyes

Lesson 13 from: Advanced Portrait Retouching

Lisa Carney

Brighten Whites of the Eyes

Lesson 13 from: Advanced Portrait Retouching

Lisa Carney

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

13. Brighten Whites of the Eyes

Lesson Info

Brighten Whites of the Eyes

A couple of different ways of doing eye whites. It's really good for you to have to retouch your own image. Look at my little yellowy cysty things, ugh. Sorry, I shouldn't have said that, I apologize. Everyone's like, "Aaaw did you say that?" Yes I did, alright. Just like the teeth, just like the teeth. Hue saturation is a really popular tool to use. In general, you're gonna wanna look at the yellows, lightening the yellows is good. Sometimes, in eye whites, sometimes in eye whites, they're gonna be really cyan. Kinda blue. Ever had that with people? Their eye whites are a little bluish? If that's the case, then just lighten up the cyans. And, often times, you get that, kinda nasty, red vein. You wanna lighten up the reds. And, then all you have to do is, mask it in, where appropriate. Where appropriate. Now, if you're dealing with someone, like me, you may find that there's some imperfections, shall we say, in the eye whites. Another trick I like to use is, I like to just grab both se...

ts of whites, I'm holding the shift key with the marquee tool, and I'm on the background, retouched, if I did it. Oh, I'm just gonna spell everything wrong. Command J, and I will call it eyes, eye whites. You wanna do this on a separate layer. This is one of those things, where the client may say, "Whoo, ease up on those eyes." Right? Or they may wanna tell you to take it further, so, definitely do this on the second layer. And, what I like to do is, I like to do surface blur. And, you'll see I already have a layer there, surface blur. And if you see, I clicked, last time I used it, I did 17x22, I like to communicate with myself, 17x22. There is zero, zero correct answer for this. This depends on the image that you have. How much you blur it. Again, you gotta know, this is once again, one of those times, take your hands off the computer, and take a look, how much, what am I trying to do. Take a look. Alright, and here's another little trick, lighten it, just a hair. Command M will get you your curves, command M. And just lighten it at the mid-tones, just a bit. Just a teeny tiny little bit. And then, mask it in, as you like. Now, as we have discussed today, I have been doing this a really long time. So, I feel pretty comfortable with my moves. My dance moves, I just did the white curve over by two. No extra charge. So, I actually lightened the whites of those eyes, I did that all in one move. For those of you starting out, you might wanna do, copy it, blur it, and then lighten it on a separate curve, until you're comfortable with your decision. I am very comfortable with this decision, I'm willing to do it all in one move. The other reason, I'm willing to do all of this, in one move, is I don't want 75 layers, I do not want them. I want to keep this file as concise as possible. And, in terms of files, I'm gonna go back to history, file management, go to history. If this was my final file, for the job, for the section. What I would do, I've got 14 eyelashes on, I look like a drag queen, it's hysterical. I would put all of this in a layer set, and I'd call it "detail". It's okay to leave it all expanded, but put it in a set, and make it clean, make it concise, and someone can come in and go, "Holy Jesus, okay alright, let's have a conversation, and see where we wanna go." Cool? Eye details number two, I just want to show you the same treatment, but a different file, because I think it's useful to see. So I just gonna go through and, turn it on spotting. Frequency separation, do you guys notice that, all the work's not done on the same file? Like, the eyelashes aren't done on frequency separation, but the detail's separate. And, this is kind of important. It's important because, chances are, the skin and the blurring of the skin, is gonna be conversation number one. How far do you go? And I wanna keep that flexibility, of hitting the 50% option, so I can pull back. If my eyelashes and eyebrows are in there, I cannot do that. So I, scarily enough, I will have different folders of frequency separation for different things. All within the same file. Okay, this is all about flexibility at the end. So, I would suggest, you have frequency separation for, whatever you need, and then, if you're gonna do frequency separation again, which is perfectly, perfectly plausible, I'm not even gonna try to say that word. Anyway, put it in a separate layer, and call it details. Okay, and I'm gonna run through these details, as I've done them. Now, some of you, if you are gonna go the action route, even though I asked you not to go action route. If you already have files that have the names, that your action want to use. It won't do frequency separation the same way. So, be careful on your file naming, when you run an action. I've run into that. Alright, whites of the eyes. So, on this file, with the whites of the eyes, as I told you before, it's pretty general. The reds are lightened, the whites are, excuse me, the yellows are not lightened because, her eyes were not yellow. Oh, I thought I did a little cyan, but maybe I didn't. She might have had a little cyan, she did not have really yellow whites of the eyes. She had red whites of the eyes.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Brunette RAW Practice Image
Blonde RAW Practice Image
Portrait Retouching Workbook
Lisa Carney PSD Practice Image
Layered Hair Color Change Example PSD File

Bonus Materials

Outline Cards

Ratings and Reviews

Tab
 

If you were like me and had no idea on where to start and feared that the editing process would be too destructive and would have to start all over again if the client didn't like your completed work - then this is the class for you. I watch this class often for review and to make sure that I maintain these good habits Lisa suggests to do. If you follow all of her helpful commentary on her how's and why's you will end up in a far better place when that time comes that you have to re-edit your edit. I cannot say enough great things about her work flow and how it not only enhanced my images to the result I was looking for but also decreased my editing time(bonus!!!!). I also on a whim sent her a email through her personal site and she replied with a massive helpful technique for enhancing freckles on a job I was working on. She is amazing! She is a true teacher who is there to show you how to use photoshop for you to find and gain your own editing style. Far too often i find myself in retouching classes that only demonstrate how to make your images look like who is teaching the class... Workflow and Style are very different, you can have the same workflow but your style is determined by your taste. Her workflow is solid and delivers time and time again. This class should be in everyone's dashboard hands down.

Kristine Pye
 

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question and take us through your "delivery" process, I found that extremely helpful. I have purchased two of Lisa's classes immediately after the live stream during Photoshop Week 2017 and was very excited to stream another set of lectures from Seattle. I will be purchasing the last two courses of Lisa's within the next 24 hours as I did just over a month ago. I find her classes to be absolutely brimming over with useful information--everything from the technique, her process, what other professionals in her work are doing, and **why** she chooses the methods she does in retouching. She is relatable and genuine, and her knowledge of the program and how to maximize efficiency while "skipping the actions" really reinforces the educational part of her courses. There are "easy way outs", but she emphasizes that you should understand the ways in which any adjustment effect the entire photo. These courses have helped me to move forward in my education, helping me to realize that with enough practice and good habit formation--such as naming every single layer every time-- that it is not irrational for me to make an effort in building a portfolio and a Master's degree with little-to-no- previous experience with the software. I am very appreciate. I hope to see more from Lisa in the future, but I have plenty to practice with for now! Thanks again, Kristine Pye kristinepye@gmail.com

Jeff Robinson
 

Lisa Carney is amazing! She has a depth of knowledge of Photoshop, retouching techniques, and compositing that she shares in a fast, but straightforward, easy to follow, step by step manner. No matter what your level of expertise, you'll find gems, shortcuts, and methods in her teaching that you can practice and put to use to make your work stronger, faster, and cleaner. And with the bonus materials she graciously provides, including workbooks with her detailed steps, practice files of the images she uses in class, and before and after comparisons, you'll be on your way to improving your skills immediately. She's an accomplished retoucher and gifted teacher. If you have the opportunity to take one of her classes, take advantage of it!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES