When it comes to natural light photography getting eyes that POP can be a struggle. Below I’ll go over one of the post processing tools I use to make eyes stand out in photographs. My favorite thing about this tool is that you can do it on your cell phone!
Selecting Only The Eyes
In the Lightroom CC mobile app toggle to the “Selective” option. Once in Selective, use the brush to draw on only the eyes in the photograph. Once the eyes are selected you can begin editing.
Editing
The first thing I change when editing eyes are the highlights and shadows. Edit these by selecting the “Light” option. Depending on the photo you might be able to stop after only adjusting the shadows on the eyes.
Next, I like to add color back into the eyes in the “Color” option. In the photo from this post, Sonia’s eyes are naturally green but in the original photo her eyes look brown. I increased the saturation slightly and tinted the eyes green.
In the “Effects” option, I increase the clarity so the edits to the eyes match the crispness of the original photo. I also increase the sharpness in the “Detail” option for the same reason.
I don’t always mess with the “Optics” option, but in this photo I increased the Moire and decreased the defringe.
Once you’ve done this to a few photos you’ll have a better grasp on how to edit the eyes based on your photography and editing style. So get practicing and happy editing!
Check out all of my favorite editing apps:
