Eye Candy

[jjeling]

Ok, so after marko's most recent podcast, I decided to work on my eyes. I know this is a little excessive, but it is a little intriguing. After some practice, I have definitely figured out how to make eyes POP without selective coloring. Let me know what you guys think about this little edit/conversion. It was fun, and the final product is quite entertaining.

[tomorrowstreasures]

it's creepy - and did you add color to her red hot ear too????

[jjeling]

haha, No, she just had red ears. I probably could have toned that down a bit. It wasn't the focus of this short project. The goal was to be able to figure out how to manipulate the eyes in a subtle way. Once I figured it out, it was fun to take it to the extreme.

[Gem]

Frankly, it freaked me out when I first saw it! (That was before I read your post )

[Mad Aussie]

Yep, well ... that's one way to make the eyes 'sing' ... or scream

[Marko]

Certainly attention is drawn to the eyes, but yeah, super creepy.

[Yisehaq]

I have definitely figured out how to make eyes POP without selective coloring.

Could you please share the technique hoping that will have a good effect on normal eyes?

[jjeling]

Ok, this is how Ive done this in Photoshop. If you do not have it then I would be clueless as to how. Anyways, I first select the Magnetic Lasso. Then zoom into the region of one eye. Start selecting the outer region of the eye until the entire eye is selected. Pull up the histogram for the selection and turn the brightness up. This way you can adjust highlights, midtones, and shadows independently until you get the optimal brightness and contrast. Once that is finished, open up your hue/saturation function and turn the saturation up. If you want you can play with the hue to make the eyes do all kinds of crazy things. Once you finish with that, select the other eye the same way. Once the eye is selected, zoom out of the image so you can adjust the levels to match the other eye. You do not want one eye brighter than the other or so far off its noticeable, unless that is what is intended in the image. When all that is said and done, zoom back in with the history brush and erase the hard line adjustment differences. Thats basically it, then you can play around with it from there.
There are many more adjustments that would help this image as a whole. The focus of this was solely on the eyes. Remember, this is just an example and a guideline of my first technique. It will get better with time and practice. Techniques will also change as they already have, but this is a pretty easy way to do it.

Marko, this might make a good photo assignment.

Ill post the original image first, and then the enhanced image second so you can compare them. Obviously the original image in this thread is extreme, but you will get the idea.

[Yisehaq]

Thanks jjeling!!!
It seems a bit advanced to me but I will give it a try when I get some time.