How to Apply Eye Shadow in Photoshop

Photoshop can't fix a bad photo, but it's a useful tool to add sparkle to a picture that already looks okay. For instance, if your model's face is looking drained, or she was not wearing makeup when the picture was taken, it's easy to add a subtle eye shadow effect to bring out her hidden beauty.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop
• Digital photo of human subject

Instructions

1. Open the image you want to retouch. Create a new layer above the original.

2. Select the Brush tool. Make your brush about the size of the model's pupil (this is only a guideline). Set the opacity to around 50% and set the color to whatever tone you want the eye shadow to have.

3. On the new layer, paint lines along the edge of the model's upper eyelids. To add eyeliner, reduce the brush size and add thin lines closer to the edges of the top and bottom eyelids.

4. Select the Smudge tool. Zoom in a step or two and smudge the eye shadow out just as you would real makeup. Zoom in until you can see the individual pixels of the image. Select the Eraser tool and trace along the very edge of the eyelids so the eye shadow is not bleeding over into your model's eyes.

5. Zoom out. Adjust the opacity of your top layer until you have a convincing blend.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to change the shade or tone of the eye shadow, you can tweak this in the "Hue/saturation/lightness" dialog.

References

• Photoshop Facelift
• Ilike2photoshop.com