[Norm1985]

By any chance, does anyone know how to correct red eye in pictures? I have a lot of experince in graphic desgin, but one thing I don't know how to do is correct red eye. Please someone help me.

Thanks in advanced.

Norm

[idjeff]

Well, I would open the image in Photoshop (assuming the pic is in a digital format). Create a new layer, choose airbrush as your tool, click on a brush with about a 25% hardness (preference) that is just a little smaller than the pupil that you're going to be fixing. Now choose a color that is almost black - 85-90 percent. FYI, this works best with a Wacom.

Make sure you're on the new layer and slowly paint over the red that is in the pupil. I'd probably add a small highlight in the pupil to reflect the flash so that it looks a little more natural. Flatten the image when you're satisfied and resave as a .jpg.

Hope that helped.

[Valentine]

If you are going to do much restoration/retouching I recommend Katrin Eismann's book: Restoration & Retouching; best I've ever read.

She uses three techniques for red-eye: Select and
Desaturate, Painting on Individual Channels and Select and Substitute.

If you can't get the book, I can type them out for you.

[GetSome681]

Yes, I could defintiely use some help with this subject. Once someone tried telling me to use the manetic lasso, and then do to something else? I really don't know, but I have a ton of digital pics I need to fix......it's funny that even the "red eye flash" doesn't really work. What a useless feature.

[Cipher13]

I had a go at it today (Norm's pic)... found the most effective method to be adjusting the hue/saturation/lightness/brightness of the 'red' area until it fit the surroundings. Given the specific image though I only had a 4 pixel area to work with... impossible to put in a replacement eye, as I would normally do

The end effect was satisfactory, I suppose, but I wasn't too happy with it at all. Hmm.

Isn't Kai's Photo Soap meant to be able to clear red-eye?

[Valentine]

Try this method as taught by Katrin Eismann in her book: Restoration & Retouching published by Que.

1. Zoom in on the eyes and press Q to enter Quick Mask Mode.
2. Use the Airbrush tool with black paint and a brush that is a bit smaller than the pupil. Hold the Airbrush over the pupil. Because the Airbrush keeps pumping out paint you’ll see that the black circle enlarges toward the edges of the pupil. Repeat on the second pupil.
3. Press Q to activate the selection and inverse (Select >Inverse) the selection.
4. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer.
5. Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left, to draw out all the color. In many cases this will at least look better, but the pupils may now look washed out. By changing the Blending Mode of the Adjustment Layer to Multiply, Photoshop will darken the desaturated layer to a rich, dark tone.
6. Adjust the opacity to taste, to the point that the pupils are enhanced without looking unnatural.

[GetSome681]

Thanks, I'll give that a try....

[Valentine]

I like this one because it maintains both pupil texture and catchlights. It's another method as taught by Katrin Eismann in her book: Restoration & Retouching published by Que.

1. Open the Channels palette and go to the channel with the best (the darkest pupil). It will most likely be the Green channel—it will definitely not be the Red channel.
2. Use the Elliptical Marquee tool to select one of the pupils. Hold down the Shift key to select the second pupil.
3. Choose Select > Feather and use a setting of 1 to slightly soften the edge of the selection.
4. Copy the selected pupils. With the selection active, click the Red channel and choose Edit > Paste Into. This will paste the good green pupil into the bad red pupil.
5. Make the Blue channel active and repeat the Paste Into command.

Any problems executing these, let me know.

( I don't know why I posted twice in the last post)

I also have a lot of experience in graphic design and the same issue puzzled me as well. So, I did a lot of research on the subject and found a real easy solution(I believe it was on the Adobe website.) Simply go to your tools pallette and choose the sponge tool (desaturate) and circle the red area in question. It works like a charm, and is a lot easier than many other ways to remedy the problem. Good luck!

[chris v]

I usually make a rectangular selection around the eyes, then select by color range.... sampled colors, and pick up the eyeballs that way. Feather it a pixel or two, then adjust any of several ways, my favorite being color balance, then perhaps destaurate a bit.

CV