dodge brush

Editing digital photos tip - Use Dodge Tool in Photoshop to whiten eyes & brighten eyes

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With Photoshop, there is always a very complicated way to do a particular digital photo edit.  The key to getting proficient at Photoshop is learning the "quick & dirty" ways of doing the same complicated edit.  You may not have 15 minutes just to brighten eyes in a portrait, or the 30 minutes to follow a complicated tutorial for how to do it.  I use a much simpler process to whiten eyes that is as easy to do as any other Photoshop edit.

To whiten or brighten eyes in Photoshop:

  • Select the Dodge tool (O)
  • Set the Range to:  highlights
  • Set the Exposure to:  10%

Setting the Range to highlights means only white areas are mostly affected by the Dodge tool, perfect for the whites of eyes.  It is very easy to overbrighten the eyes, which is why I set the Exposure low to 10% and click as needed.  I find that a subtle brightening works best and keeps the eyes looking natural.  I set the brush to be within the upper and lower eye-lids then click first on the iris of the eye to give them a little pop, then on the white to one side and then the other.  

Even a little eye brightening can have a large impact on the overall face of the subject.  Look at the graphic above and see how it appears that the entire face has been brightened.  The only difference in the photos is that the lower one has had the eyes brightened using the Dodge tool.

O selects Dodge Tool, then change Range to highlights and Exposure to 10%

Digital Photo Editing Lesson with Stacy - prom couple before and after

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The past few weeks I have been teaching former Morean Arts Center photography student, Stacy, how to develop a Mac digital photo editing workflow.  She is new to Mac as well, so I have been showing her some of my top tips for using OS X as efficiently as possible (hint, use Expose every day).  She also got the same apps I have so she could learn my exact photo editing workflow which starts in Aperture 3, then Color Efex Pro 3, then finally Photoshop CS5.  

Stacy made this photo of her daughter and her boyfriend on their junior prom night.  No flash was used, only natural light.  Here is the process for how the photo was transformed:

Aperture 3 workflow:

  • white balance slider increased toward cooler (blue)
  • shadows slider increased
  • mid-level contrast slider increased
  • dodging brush used on all skin areas

Color Efex Pro 4 (she has 4, I use 3):

  • Polarization filter applied
  • Pro Contrast filter applied

Photoshop CS5 (approximate steps):

  • Quick Select Tool used on all skin areas
  • Dodge Brush used selectively
  • Healing Brush used for blemish removal
  • Clone Stamp Tool used for more complex blemish removal and slight skin softening in general
  • Dodge Brush used in highlights mode to brighten eyes & teeth
  • Clone Stamp Tool used to lighten under the eyes
  • Quick Select Tool used on water
  • Contrast adjustment made selectively to water
  • Quick Select Tool used on sky
  • Highlights adjustment made selectively to sky
  • Saturation adjustment made selectively to sky
  • Unsharp Mask filter applied

None of these individual techniques is advanced.  To a properly trained Photoshop professional they might even seem crude.  However, what each technique lacks in complexity, the complexity comes from knowing when and how to use each one to accomplish a photo retouching goal.  At each stage of editing the photo looked better.  Through experience it can be learned how to keep adding yet another stage to one's editing workflow to make a photograph reach its full potential, or in some cases, save a photo that would otherwise be culled.