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Photoshop Tutorial – Change Eye Color

Posted on December 11, 2008

Change eye colorWhen working with portrait photography, you may want to change or enhance the color of your subject’s eyes. This can be easily done inside Photoshop CS3 and CS4. In this example, I will be using CS4, but this can be done in just about any version of Photoshop.

This technique can also be used for elements other than eyes. You can effectively change or enhance the colors of any object or photo inside Photoshop. For our purposes here, we’ll stick with stick with the eyes. Just keep in mind that you can apply these steps to any object to change its color.

1. Add Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
First, open the image that needs the color change. In the Adjustments panel, click on the icon (indicated in the image to the right) to add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. If the Adjustments panel isn’t visible, you can open it by going to the Windows menu option and choosing Adjustments.

2. Make adjustments
Toward the bottom of the Hue/Saturation panel, make sure the Colorize box is checked. Now start dragging the top Hue slider until you get the desired color. You’ll immediately notice that everything in your image is having the color applied to it. Don’t worry about that, we’ll address that in the next step.

After you’ve found the color you want, adjust the Saturation slider to give the color more or less saturation. Leave the Lightness slider at 0…like, always.

3. Apply layer mask
When you add an adjustment layer, a white layer mask icon is automatically added to it. This is how we will be limiting where the color is applied to your image.

Since the layer mask is white, it is exposing the effects of your hue/saturation adjustment layer to everything in your image We need to first switch the fill color of the layer mask to black. To do this, simply click on the layer mask thumbnail to make sure it’s selected and press Ctrl + I (Cmd + I on Mac) to invert the layer mask. This will hide the effects of the adjustment layer.

4. Paint in the color
Now grab the Brush Tool (hit B key), make sure you have a small, soft brush, set white as your foreground color, and paint in the iris of your subject’s eyes. As you paint you’ll begin to see the color adjustments you’ve made being applied to the eyes.

This is the point where you can change the color of any object in your image. Instead of painting in the eyes, simply paint over whichever object you want to change the color for.

Need to change the color of multiple objects? Simply create a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer for each new color you need. You have practically an unlimited number of adjustment layers that can be added to your image.

5. Fine Tuning
At this point you can drop the opacity of your adjustment layer to reduce the intensity of the color; conversely, to made the adjustments more dramatic you can increase the Saturation in the Adjustments panel.

It’s easy to let things get out of hand with these adjustments. It all depends on the level of realism you’re wanting to achieve with your image. With any image adjustment, it helps to get the image to where you think it looks good, then walk away from your computer for a few moments. When you come back you’ll have a fresh perspective on the image and the adjustments you’ve made.

Check out the image to the right to see a comparison of the original, the slight adjustments, and the extreme adjustments.

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Comments

7 Responses to “Photoshop Tutorial – Change Eye Color”

  1. Alice on January 20th, 2009 6:27 am

    This tutorial was brilliant! (:

    It was pretty much the only one anywhere I could properly understand.:P
    But I did it, and now I’m a pro, in all of like, 5 minutes.

    (: (: (:

  2. Zen on August 25th, 2009 2:24 am

    This did not work for me. I got everything up until Step 4 when you said to use a small, soft brush, set white as f/g color and fill in the iris… I do that, but nothing happens. I’ve tried it over and over again following your instructions word for word but it will not work for me. :o( This really is frustrating, as I have encountered problem after problem with CS4. I’m really missing my Corel PSP right about now! :o(

  3. arielle on January 31st, 2010 8:14 pm

    I dont get it?
    I am lost at the whole Iris of the eye thing?
    WTFFFF.

  4. seo on November 29th, 2010 2:52 am

    Excellent post! Can I translate this into French for my blog?

  5. it infrastructure management on November 30th, 2010 2:03 am

    Hey, was just browsing through the internet searching for some information and stumbled on your site. I am impressed by the information that you have on this blog. It shows how well you get this subject. Bookmarked this page, will come back for more. You, my friend, ROCK!!!

  6. dodi on March 23rd, 2011 1:51 am

    nice tutorial, i also use this trick to change hair collor

  7. MrsNyums on July 8th, 2011 12:44 am

    Really easy to follow, quick and useful tut. Thanks heaps! Brilliant.

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