Red eye occurs mainly on digital compact cameras because the internal flash is very close to the center of the lens. Although most cameras nowadays have an "anti-red eye mode", it can still occur. We will discuss various automatic and manual methods to remove red eye. Automatic methods are quick and easy, but sometimes manual adjustments are needed for optimal results.
Before
After red eye removal
Photoshop Elements Red Eye Removal Tool
The Red Eye Removal Tool is a major improvement compared to similar tools in Photoshop Elements 2. As indicated in frames 2 and 4 in the animation below, you only need to click in the neighborhood of the red eye and the correction happens automatically.
In case you are not happy with the result, you can always go back in the Undo History Palette and try the Red Eye Removal Tool again after having adjusted the Pupil Size and Darken Amount sliders.
Darken makes the corrected area darker. In this example I set Darken Amount to only 1% as higher values were too dark. The Pupil Size slider allows you to specify the size of a darker area in the middle of the corrected area, simulating the effect of a pupil. The result is as good as the earlier discussed manual methods. We will illustrate another example next.
As will be shown next, the Red Eye Removal Tool does not always give an optimal solution. In anticipation of this, we duplicate the Background layer by dragging it to the "Create a new layer" icon as indicated in the animation below. Then toggle OFF the Background copy layer and select the Background layer.
If you have not already done so, zoom in to 300% for more accuracy by using the Zoom Tool or by pressing "Ctrl+". Instead of clicking with the Red Eye Removal Tool, select an area around the eye as indicated. This is an alternative way of using the Red Eye Removal Tool and allows for more control as the way in which you select the area generates different results.
As you can see, the brown color of the eye turns into black. Moreover, the dark area "bleeds" out into the eyelids. On the next page we will correct both problems in one step.
Now select the Background copy layer and choose a soft round brush from the drop down menu in the options bar of the Eraser Tool. As with all brushes, the hardness can be adjusted by pressing "{" or "}". As indicated in the animation below, click a few times to erase all the red in the Background copy layer so that the Background layer which was corrected with the Red Eye Removal Tool becomes visible again. When satisfied select "Layer > Merge Layers".
Before
After Red Eye
Removal Tool
After additional
adjustments
This tutorial can also be applied in Adobe Photoshop CS4-CS3-CS2-CS and other image editing software.
