How to enhance eyes in your portraits using Photoshop CC

posted Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 8:00 AM EDT

It is often said that eyes are the windows to the soul. It makes sense then that there are so many tutorials out there about how to retouch and improve the look of eyes in Photoshop. In a new video from Nathaniel Dodson of tutvid, he looks at how to make eyes look amazing in Photoshop CC 2019 using adjustment layers, healing tools, some masks and blend modes. It may seem like a lot of steps, but it’s easy to follow along eyes are really important in portraits, so they’re worth the effort.

Any time you are retouching a portrait, it can be easy to overdo it, so keep in mind using a subtle touch if your end goal is a realistic looking portrait. With the technique outlined by Dodson in the video below, you can utilize opacity sliders to adjust the intensity of the effects. After making some basic brightness adjustments, Dodson’s first step is to utilize the healing brush tool set to the “lighten” blend mode with a diffusion setting of “7.” This allows him to paint away the redness in the subject’s eyes without making them completely white. To see the next steps, watch the full video below.