Adobe Photoshop Red Eye Removal

Her eyes are as red as her hair, and that's just wrong.

How disappointing to download your digital photos and find "horror movie eyes" on everyone, including the baby and the dog. The camera flash was reflected in the subject's retina, back when you took the pictures and it's too late to re-shoot now. Don't worry, you can still transform those scary eyes into warm and friendly ones with Photoshop's various red eye removal techniques and tools.

Red Eye Removal with the Channel Mixer

Photoshop's "Channel Mixer" comes in handy with red eye removal. With your photo already open on your screen, click "Layer" and then "New Adjustment Layer" and "Channel Mixer." This is the key: Change the settings in the "Channel Mixer" dialog box to zero percent red, and 50 percent each for green and blue. Then when you select the "Channel Mixer" layer in the "Layers" palette, you'll see a little white box. Simply change it to a black box with the "Alt+Backspace" command. Next, go to the Toolbox, grab a paint brush the size of the red part of the eye in the photo, and paint it white (your foreground color) with one click. Watch the werewolf factor disappear. For a tutorial with pictures, go to http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/cb/remove-red-eye.html

Quick Fix Magic Wand Red Eye Removal

If the red part of the eye is round and clear with a white dot in the center, you can try the quick fix method by zooming in, then simply selecting the red part of the eye with the "Magic Wand Tool" on a duplicate background layer. Hit "Delete" on your keyboard, and the red eye is no more. The eye will be transparent, with the white dot intact. Next, with black as your foreground color, use the "Paint Bucket" at about 70 percent opacity to fill the transparent circle. If you're satisfied with the result, you need go no further.

Color Replacement Tool Red Eye Removal

Find this clever tool hiding under the "Healing Brush" in the Toolbox in Photoshop CS2. Click it to see brush options right under the Toolbar at the top. Check "Color" for Mode, "Once" for Sampling, "Discontinguous" for Limits and "Tolerance" at 30 percent. Choose a brush tip slightly smaller than the red area of the eye, and pick the color you want to replace the red. Black usually works, or something dark with a little hint of the real eye color. Drag the "Color Replacement Tool" crosshairs to a red eye, click and begin painting the eye. Complete steps are found in your Photoshop CS help section when you search "red-eye."

Red Eye Removal Tool

Photoshop versions from CS4 on have a "Red Eye Tool" in the "Spot Healing Brush Tool" group, which conveniently looks like an eye. To use it, be sure you are in RGB color mode. Then select the "Red Eye Tool," and drag it to the red eye in your photo. Click! You will see that the tool automatically changes the red. If you do not like the result, change some tool options by increasing or decreasing the pupil size, and/or darkening the correction. This information is found in your CS4 help section: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7601a.html

References

• Photoshop Support: Red Eye Removal Tutorial. Ivan Raszl, Creative Bits.