Better Red Eye Repair

Step 1.

OPEN A PHOTO WITH RED EYEOpen a photo that is suffering from the dreaded “red eye.”

©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Step 2.

MAKE A LOOSE SELECTION AROUND THE EYES USING THE LASSO TOOL.

Use the Zoom tool to zoom in on the eyes, then get the Lasso tool (L), and draw a loose selection around the red area of the eyes (select one eye, press-and-hold the Shift key, and select the other eye). The key word here is “loose,” don’t waste your time trying to make a perfect selection of just the red areas, because it’s not necessary.

Step 3.

IF YOU TAKE A LOOK AT THE RED CHANNEL, YOU’LL SEE WHERE THE RED EYE DAMAGE LIES.

This step isn’t actually necessary, it’s just for learning purposes, but since that’s why you bought the book, you may as well check out the Red channel, so you can see where all the damage is. Again, it’s not necessary to look at this channel when you’re actually doing this move, but hey, while we’re here, why not?

Step 4.

NOW TAKE A LOOK AT THE GREEN CHANNELTHAT’S WHERE YOUR NEW EYES ARE COMING FROM.

Press Command-2 (PC: Control-2) to view just the Green channel. You’ll notice that the eyes look much better here, and that’s where we’re going to “borrow” from to fix our damaged Red channel eyes. Again, you don’t actually have to look at this channel either while you’re doing the move. You can pretty much assume the Red channel is trashed, and the Green channel is okay. Press Command-~ (PC: Control-~) to get back to your RGB Composite channel.

Step 5.

GO TO APPLY IMAGE, TARGET THE GREEN CHANNEL, IN DARKEN MODE, AT 100% OPACITY.

Now for the eye swapping. Go under the Image menu and choose Apply Image. For the Channel choose Green, for the Blending choose Darken, make sure your Opacity setting is set to 100%, and then click OK.

Step 6.

DESELECT AND YOU’RE DONE.

Believe it or not, you’re doneyou can now Deselect (press Command-D [PC: Control-D]). Now, check out the eyes. Pretty sweet, eh?