With all the advances in consumer digital photography, unwanted red eye is still a problem that comes up when taking flash-heavy pictures of people at night. In this post, we’ll show how easy it is to quickly eliminate the problem with the newest version of Adobe Photoshop.
This tip is taken from our new Photoshop CC 2014 Tutorial Video course, authored by expert trainer Andy Anderson. Built on our original Photoshop CC training, the course includes brand new lessons and updates to reflect the 2014 Creative Cloud update, for a total of 13.5 hours of hands-on videos. You can order it as a download or DVD for $99.95 or access it instantly streaming with all other courses through our Learning Library for $25 per month.
Ridding Your Image of Red-Eye
With Your Camera
First of all, if you want to eliminate red eye before taking a photo, there are a number of techniques that can help. Using a separate, offset flash, for example, gets rid of the problem by changing the angle the light takes as it reflects off the subject’s retinas. You can also turn out the lights in the room first, to make the subject’s pupils smaller, or use the red-eye reduction feature found on some cameras.
Of course, these techniques are not always practical or possible.
With Photoshop
Photoshop’s built-in Red Eye Tool is easier to use and more effective than ever. To access the tool, go to the Healing Brush toolbar area, right-click or hold-click for the context menu, and go to the very bottom.
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Once you’ve selected the tool, you do have the option to change the darkness setting and pupil size at the top of the workspace. The default 50/50 settings work well in most circumstances, but sometimes when removing eye reflections from dog or cat photos, it can help to increase the darkness.
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Once selected, though, the tool is literally point-and-click. Place the cursor over the eye you’d like to restore, and click once.
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Instantly, the image should be corrected.
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If you’re not getting the results you’d like, you can Undo with Command+Z (Mac) or Cntrl+Z (Windows), adjust the settings mentioned earlier, and try once again.
Video
To watch Andy execute the technique onscreen, watch the video below.