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Photoshop Red Eye Correction

John Woods
Adobe Certifed Expert
Photoshop 6.0
Figure 1 Digital camera shot with straight on fash, resulting in red eye.
Figure 1
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Figure 2
Figure 2 Close up of the red eye.
Figure 3
Figure 3 Select the Sponge Tool in the Photoshop toolbar
Figure 4
Figure 4 Sponge Tool controls in the Photoshop tool control banner bar. Notice
the Sponge tool is set for Desaturate, so it removes color from the image.
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Figure 5
Figure 5 Sponge Tool Brush Size Mode set, Left Eye Desaturated
Figure 6
Figure 6 Both eyes desaturated.Red eye removed.
Figure 7
Figure 7 Default colors set in Photoshop tool bar Black foreground,
White Background. Mouse click on Foreground color swatch to open Color Picker
control panel.
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Figure 8
Figure 8 Color Picker control panel open
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Figure 9
Figure 9 Color Picker control panel open change the RGB values to
R 89, G 96, B 76. This gives you a Gray green.
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Figure 10
Figure 10 Notice the Foreground color is the Gray Green we selected in the
preceding steps.
Figure 11
Figure 11 Click on the Paintbrush tool in the Photoshop toolbar.
Figure 12
Figure 12 Paintbrush tool controls in the Photoshop tool control banner bar.
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Figure 13
Figure 13 Color added back to Left eye. Once both eyes have had the color
added back into them
Figure 14
Figure 14 Click on the Airbrush tool in the Photoshop tool bar
Figure 14A
Figure 14A Airbrush tool controls in the Photoshop tool control banner bar
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Figure 16
Figure 16 Foreground and Background colors switched.
Figure 15
Figure 15 Click on the small arrow (red highlight) to switch the Foreground
and Background colors.
Figure 17
Figure 17 Catch light in the Left eye enhanced with the Airbrush tool.
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Figure 18
Figure 18 Both catch lights in the eyes enhanced.
Figure 19 Use the crop to remove some of the busy background, and change the
image from a landscape to a portrait orientation.
Figure 19
Figure 20
Figure 20 Crop tool controls set in the Photoshop tool control banner bar.
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Figure 21
Figure 21 Crop tool on the image with the dimensions that were set in the Crop
tool banner bar controls.
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Figure 22
Figure 22 Cropped image now 480 pixels wide and 640 pixels high at 72ppi.
Figure 23
Figure 23 Click on the Lasso tool in the Photoshop tool bar
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Figure 24
Figure 24 Outline the background using the Lasso tool. To draw the marching ants
selection click and hold the Mouse button down, when you get back to the starting
point release the Mouse button.
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Figure 25
Figure 25 Click on Select>Feather on the Photoshop banner bar.
Figure 26
Figure 26 Set the Feather to a large radius, this softens the edge of the selection,
and also adds a softened radius around the selection edge.
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Figure 27
Figure 27 Notice how the selection edge has smoothed out
Figure 28 Click on Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur on the Photoshop banner bar.
Figure 28
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Figure 29
Figure 29 Make the gaussian Blur a
moderate amount such as 3 to 4 pixels in
radius.
Figure 30
Figure 30 Results of the 3.7 radius Gaussian Blur, notice how the background
has softened down.
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Figure 31
Figure 31 Click on Image>Adjust>Curves on the Photoshop banner bar.
Figure 32
Figure 32 Curves control panel open
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Figure 33
Figure 33 Curves control panel open, RGB curve adjusted so that the background
becomes much darker.
Lighter
Darker
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Figure 34
Figure 34 Results of the Gaussian Blur and the curves adjustment.
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Figure 35
Figure 35 Select Image>Adjust>Brightness/Contrast
Figure 36
Figure 36 Adding some Brightness into the image and pulling back the Contrast.
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Figure 37
Figure 34 Results of the Brightness and Contrast adjustments.
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Figure 38
Figure 38 Final Image
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