windycityed:
I lasso the eye white. Use hue/saturation to remove any red,or yellow from the eyes, then bump up the lightness slider. I am done ,end of story


I like this technique. Do you feather the lasso at all?

I used it on her left eye

It looks to me to be a little too much. Believe me, it is very easy to overdo the eyes. Retouch the eyes on a separate layer...that way you can always play with the opacity of that layer to bring in the underlying layer to keep it natural.

Here is how I skin this cat...

Quickly copy the eyes to a new layer and then zoom in and remove every thing but the whites using the Eraser tool. You can desat/heal the red out. Now, to give them a little more brightness, change that new layer to Screen mode and bring the opacity of it down to about 15-20%. Adjust to taste.

No I don't feather the selection. Sometimes when the red and or yellow are removed from the eyes the whites tend to have a gray cast to them. That is why the bump up on the lightness slider. Ever so slight until the whites are no longer gray. Simple,down and dirty.

This might sound like it won't work, but try it first!

The best way I've found, and it cuts out the lasso all together is to check the most recent step in your history pallette and select your History Brush. Now, change the mode to color dodge or linear dodge (add) (color dodge is great to lighten and bring out the color in the ?iris?) and paint over the whites at 10% to 25%. If done on a new layer, you can easily erase any lightening other than the whites, but this shouldn't be much of an issue if done at a 100% or more.

This also works well for white or light backgrounds that need to be a little whiter.

This is much more efficient, at least for me, than using any selection tools.. Sometimes selection tools are a better idea if it's a printed headshot at 24x30, but for most images this is the best for me.

Hope this helps you save some time!

It seems like I've been doing it the ultra easy way with seniors for a couple years. Dodge tool, 18%, couple clicks over each white. Done. Hit the teeth too while I'm at it.
Hate brite white glowing eyes.