Brighten eyes in Photoshop Elements

First, you need to open your file and to do this you go to File>Open, find the image you want to work on and either double click on it or click the Open button.

As we want to work on the eyes and not the whole face zooming in will make editing the image a little easier and there are several ways to do this: One, click the Magnifying tool and then click on the image to zoom in, two, press Z (On a PC) on the keyboard to select the Magnifying tool and then click on the image, three, go to the View menu and click zoom in or four, press the Control key with the +/= key. Whichever method you prefer, zooming in to about 100% will be enough to see the areas you want to edit.


Next, click and hold the Lasso tool so a smaller menu appears. On this menu choose the Magnetic Lasso tool (keyboard shortcut L).

Before we start work on the image, look towards the top of the screen and just underneath, to the left you'll see a series of four shapes made up of squares, select the second one called Add to Selection. This will mean any changes you make to the image will be applied to all the areas you select which in this case will be both eyes.

Move the Magnetic Lasso tool to one of the eyes and click around all or just the section of the Iris you want to enhance. Do this until the shape is complete and your line looks like running ants. Repeat on the opposite eye.

Once both eyes are selected go to Enhance Menu>Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast. When you make changes to the Brightness/Contrast the changes can be previewed on the image. The contrast should be altered first and you do this by either typing a value in the box available or by moving the slider up and down. Each image is different but the contrast on this image was changed to 68%. Next, adjust the brightness in the same way. Again the amount it's needed to be changed by will depend on the image but this was changed to 30%. Once you're happy click ok.

Go back to the Enhance Menu but this time click the Adjust Sharpness menu. Once the box opens, you may want to zoom out so you can see the eyes more clearly and like we did with the contrast and brightness, adjust the sharpness until you're happy (the sharpness was adjusted to 135% for this image.) Then click OK.

Next go to the Select Menu and click Deselect (Keyboard shortcut Ctrl D).

Zoom back out by using the Magnifying tool, going to View>Zoom Out or by clicking Ctrl – and see your newly enhanced eyes.



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