Here’s a Clever Trick for Adding Life to Eyes in Photoshop

Photographer and retouching expert Matt Kloskowski made this 14-minute video that introduces on technique for adding life back into a portrait subject’s eyes using Photoshop.

Sometimes you may find that the eyes in your image seem a little dark, lacking life and “punch.” Some photographers will use a kicker light, which is a shaped light that goes underneath the subject and “kicks” some light into the eye, providing a little bit of illumination into the lower part of the eye.

But if this lighting route isn’t an option and you’re looking to improve the eyes in post-production, then there is a really neat way to do this. You can create a small white crescent moon shape and blend it into the image to brighten up the eyes instantly.

Once you’ve appropriately softened the edges of the white area and positioned it properly, you can then harness the blending modes and watch your portrait come to life. Kloskowski uses the Overlay blend mode, however, you can try adopting the others to see which suits your situation the best.

Remember that you can use the opacity slider on your adjustment layer to change the strength of the effect.

Kloskowski also points out that this technique will even work for four-legged subjects and not just two-legged. In fact, if you are photographing family pets then you can give the photo a little bit more charm by using this great tip.

(via Matt Kloskowski via Fstoppers)