Tap Room Podcast 40: Adjustments to the Eyes

On our podcast/video session, we created a quick tutorial on changing eye color in Photoshop.

Step 1: Zooming in on the eyes, you can either use the (ctrl +) or magnifying tool.

Step 2: Utilizing the Lasso Tool - you’ll want to map out the section of the eye you want to change color. Draw the selection around the eye.

Step 3: Once you drawn around the eye, select the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Selecting this will also create a mask and impact the area selected by the Lasso Tool.

Step 4: In the properties section of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer appear in Photoshop's Properties panel. Turn on the Colorize option by clicking inside its checkbox:

Step 5: In the Layers panel, the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer sits above the image on the Background layer. Change the blend mode from Normal to Color. This is a subtle change, but allows for more detail in the eye.

Step 6: To choose a different color for the eyes, drag the Hue slider. Dragging the slider from left to right cycles you through all the colors of the rainbow, moving from red on the far left to oranges and yellows, greens, blues, magentas, and so on, all the way back to red on the far right.

Step 7: After choosing a new eye color with the Hue slider, drag the Saturation slider to the left to lower the intensity until the color looks more natural. This is subjective and you’ll want to find the intensity that works best for your image.

Step 8: After the coloring is set, select the brush tool and use the “Black” fill to cover any overlap of eye color you would find in areas the lasso tool overlapped. Since my version wasn’t perfect, this was used to take away any color bleed onto the skin around the eye.

Once your complete the edit to your liking, the image is complete.


Kevin Taylor