Photoshop SOS

Clean up that twinkle

This is the rare occasion that you can safely use the Dodge Tool (O).

Because it is so easy to over do this, take a Snapshot first. This will allow you to back off the enhancement. On the History Palette, make a Snapshot and move the History Mark to it.

Use the Clone Tool (C) to remove secondary catchlight if needed.

Use the Dodge Tool  (O) with a small brush with the Range in the Option Bar set to Highlight with an Opacity of 25%. Brush is just bigger than the catchlight.

Proceed conservatively and view the full face often to check your work. If eyes seem excessively bright, use the History Brush at 15% Opacity to back off the brightening.  If you did the snapshot before starting, it will work perfectly.

How to reduce shine quickly and realistically!

It happens. No matter how careful you are at watching your lighting ratios and powdering faces, some people are just shiny.

To reduce the shine and keep some skin texture, use the Patch Tool  (J).

Make a selection around the shine (only as big as you can find another patch of good texture, though), then move the mouse within the selection to click & drag it away to an area that is not shiny. You are  will be able to see a preview in the window of the original selection. Let go of the mouse/pen and it will “patch” the area.

Immediately go the Edit > Fade Patch (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+F) and move the slider to 50%. If this option is not available, it is because you did something else after you made the patch. Go back in your History Palette, undo and try it again.

It may be necessary to do this more than once if the shine covers a large area. Just choose a new section that is still shiny and continue to do it in pieces until it is done, fading to 50% each time. The fade is what keeps it looking realistic and keeps enough specularity to give the face dimension!

Fast & Easy

To Fix Yellow Teeth:Use the Lasso (L)

• Draw a Selection loosely through the lips
• Add an adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation.
• Select the Yellows to edit (drop down below “master”), and remove Saturation of the yellow pixels
• Also slide the Lighten slider if needed.
• its ok to make radical changes–it will be subtle because it is only working on the yellow pixels!

There are no yellow pixels in the lips or gums, so you can make a quick and sloppy selection, as long as you stay on the lips, not the skin. Because you are only working on the yellow pixels, it’s hard to over correct the teeth.

To just lighten, (not correct the yellow), use an adjustment layer of curves as if you were lightening the eye whites. If you have already done that, you can make it apply to the teeth as well by taking a soft brush and painting white over the teeth at a low opacity (30 or so) to lighten the teeth using the same adjustment layer. Paint a few strokes until it is lightened enough. If you did not already make an adjustment for the eye whites, select the teeth with a 2px lasso and add an adjustment layer of curves to lighten. You’ll have to be much more careful with your selection on this method.

Make sure those baby blues are blue…. Or green
Changing the color of eyes (or intensifying) is a tricky thing sometimes, but this method always works and gives you lots of flexibility. To change eye color: Add a new blank layer by pressing the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Click on the Foreground Color and use the Color Picker to select the color. Use the Brush Tool (B) with a small soft edge brush at 100% Opacity and paint over the eyes on the new blank layer. Change the Layer Mode of that layer to Soft light. Reduce the Opacity of the layer, if needed, so that it looks natural. For Tinted eyes on a B&W, the method is exactly the same–Easy and quick! Note: you can also do this with the Color Mode, but you will definitely need to lower the opacity!