Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

The tools we need for this job are in the Develop module. Select your photos and press D to jump on over. There are 2 techniques I’d like to show you. One only works on human eyes, but the other can be used for both humans and pets.

Starting with the Red Eye Correction tool, which is located in the Toolstrip just under the Histogram.

Step 1.

The Red Eye Correction tool doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut, so just click the eyeball icon to activate the tool.

This will expand the panel below the Toolstrip, which reveals the controls for this tool.

Step 2.

When working on the first eye you start by clicking in the center of the eye and slowly dragging outward both up and down and side to side. As you do this a circle will form and grow to the match the size you are creating by dragging outward.

You want to drag far enough that this circle is larger than the pupil (don’t worry about making it too large). Once you release the mouse Lightroom will analyze the area inside the circle and automatically reduce the red eye effect.

Step 3.

Use the Pupil Size and Darken sliders to fine tune the adjustment further. The goal is to reduce the effect of the glaring red color, so it is not noticeable when printed. It may never look exactly perfect when zoomed in at full size.

Step 4.

The Red Eye Correction tool will remember the size last used so simply single click on the center of the second eye to apply the correction, and then adjust the sliders as needed.

If you want to go back and tweak the settings on the first eye just click in the circle around that eye to activate it for editing. Press the Delete key to remove the active correction circle if you want to start over. The Reset button in the Toolstrip panel will only reset the red eye correction. Click the Close button to exit the tool.

Another way to tackle glowing eyes in people and in pets is to use the Adjustment Brush. Here’s how:

Step 1.Select your photo and press K to jump to the Adjustment Brush.

Step 2.

Zero out all sliders to start. Set Saturation to -100.

Step 3.

Choose a brush size that is smaller than the effected area of the eye. Give it a slightly soft edge.

Step 4.

Paint over the red eye to remove all trace of color.

Step 5.

Gradually decrease the Brightness slider to darken the pupil. By using Brightness instead of Exposure you’ll keep any catchlights nice and bright.

Step 6.

Apply the same settings to the other eye.

The nice thing about using the Adjustment Brush is that you have a little more control over the effect and it works on human red eye as well as dog and cat eyeshine.

If you find a combination of settings you like you can save them as a preset by clicking the Effect drop-down menu and choose save current settings as a new preset. Tip: Create a Zeroed preset that quickly zeroes out all sliders to serve as a safe starting point for all adjustments.