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Showing posts with label photo editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo editing. Show all posts

Monday, 28 February 2011

Perspective Correction In Photoshop - Keystoning


Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

Before we do anything else, we should first make a copy of the original image which is sitting on the Background layer in the Layers palette. This is to avoid doing any damage to the original in case we need it later. To duplicate the Background layer, go up to theLayer menu at the top of the screen, choose New and then choose Layer via Copy. Or, to save time, simply use the handy keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Either way tells Photoshop to make a copy of the Background layer for us, and if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that we now have two layers. The original Background layer is on the bottom, and a copy of the layer, which Photoshop automatically named "Layer 1", is sitting directly above it:
The Layers palette in Photoshop CS4. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Duplicate the Background layer to avoid damaging the original image.

Step 2: Open The Lens Correction Filter

Now that we're working on a copy of the image, let's bring up the Lens Correction filter by going up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choosing Distort and then choosing Lens Correction:
Selecting the Lens Correction filter from the Filter menu in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Go to Filter > Distort > Lens Correction.

Step 3: Straighten The Image If Needed

Photoshop's large Lens Correction dialog box appears, with a few tools along the left, a large preview area in the middle and several options for correcting lens problems along the right. Before we fix our keystoning problem, we should take care of a couple of other potential problems first which will the make it easier for us to fix the keystoning. To start with, let's make sure the image is straight. We can do that using the Straighten Tool, which is the second tool from the top on the left side of the dialog box. Click on it to select it. Then simply click and drag across something in the image that should be straight, either horizontally or vertically. I'm going to click across the roof on the left side of the building in my photo. When you release your mouse button, Photoshop will rotate the image inside the preview area to straighten it (assuming it was crooked). If you find that the grid is making it difficult to see what you're doing, you can turn it off temporarily by unchecking the Show Grid option at the bottom of the dialog box:
Straightening the image in the Lens Correction dialog box in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Click and drag with the Straighten Tool across something in the image that should be straight.
If you need to zoom in on the image, press Ctrl++ (Win) / Command++ (Mac), or to zoom out, press Ctrl+- (Win) / Command+-(Mac). If, while zoomed in, you need to move the image around inside the preview area, simply hold down your spacebar which gives you temporary access to the Hand Tool, then click and drag the image to move it.

Step 4: Fix Any Barrel Or Pincushion Distortion

Sometimes a photo can suffer from what's called barrel distortion where the image appears to bulge out from its center as if it's being wrapped around a sphere, or from pincushion distortion, the exact opposite problem where it appears to be pinched in towards the center. Not all images have one of these problems but if yours does, it's best to correct it before attempting to fix the keystoning. There's a couple of different ways to do this. One is to click on the Remove Distortion Tool, which is the top tool on the left of the dialog box, then simply click and drag inside the image with your mouse. Drag towards the center of the image to correct any barrel distortion, or drag away from the center to correct any pincushioning:
Selecting the Remove Distortion Tool in the Lens Correction dialog box. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Click on the Remove Distortion Tool, then click and drag inside the image to remove barrelling or pincushioning if needed.
You can accomplish the same thing with the Remove Distortion slider at the top of the column on the right. Drag the slider towards the left to correct pincushioning, or drag it to the right to correct barrelling. Regardless of the method you choose, make sure you don't drag too far otherwise you'll end up causing the opposite problem that you're correcting. You'll probably find the grid helpful when trying to fix these problems, so check the Show Grid option at the bottom of the dialog box to turn it back on if you turned it off in the previous step:
The Remove Distortion slider in the Lens Correction dialog box in Photoshop CS4. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Drag the Remove Distortion slider towards the left to correct pincushioning or the right to correct barrelling.
If you've gone too far and need to reset the image, just enter value of 0 into the Remove Distortion input box directly above the slider.
Now that we've made sure the image is straight and we've removed any distortion, let's fix our keystoning problem. We'll do that next!

dual view


Have you ever found yourself zoomed in close to a specific area in a photo, maybe brightening someone's eyes or whitening their teeth, or you may have been panning around an image looking for minor skin blemishes or dust marks on an antique photo, and you're having trouble judging how effective your edits really are because you're too close to the image? Wouldn't it be great if you could see the entire photo as you're working no matter how zoomed in you are? Sure, you could always zoom in to make a few edits, zoom out to the 100% view size to judge the results, zoom back in to make a few more edits, zoom out, back and forth, on and on, but who wants to do that, especially when there's a much better and easier way! Just open the same image in a second document window!
Here's a photo I currently have open in Photoshop. I'm using Photoshop CS4 here but this tip works with any version:
A colorful photo of a blond woman wearing a knitted cap. Image licensed from iStockphoto by Photoshop Essentials.com
The original image open in Photoshop.
Let's say I wanted to work on the woman's eyes, either lightening them or changing their color. I'll need to zoom in on her eyes, so I'll grab the Zoom Tool from the Tools palette and drag a rectangular selection around her eyes. When I release my mouse button, Photoshop zooms in on the area I selected:
Zooming in on the woman's eyes in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
Drag a selection with the Zoom Tool around the area you need to zoom in on.
The problem is, I'd still like to be able to see the rest of the photo as I'm working so I can get a better sense of how the changes I'm making are impacting the overall image. As I mentioned, I could zoom in and out as I'm working, but a much better solution would be to open a second view of the image in a separate document window. To do that, simply go up to the Window menu at the top of the screen and choose Arrange. You'll see an option called New Window for, followed by the name of the image you currently have open. In my case, the name of my image is "knitted_cap.jpg", so my option shows up as "New Window for knitted_cap.jpg":
Selecting the Window - Arrange - New Window option in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
Go to Window > Arrange > New Window for (insert the name of your image here).
This opens the exact same image in a second document window. If you're working in Photoshop CS4 as I am here, the default behavior of Photoshop CS4 is to open new windows as a series of tabbed documents. Go up to the new Application Bar at the top of the screen, click on the Arrange Documents icon, then click on the 2 Up two column document layout:
The Arrange Documents option in the Application Bar in Photoshop CS4. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
In Photoshop CS4, select the "2 Up" two column layout from the Arrange Documents option.
In Photoshop CS3 and earlier, choosing "Window > Arrange > New Window for (name of your image)" opens the image in a second floating document window. To place the document windows side by side each other, simply click on the tab area at the top of the document windows and drag them into position. Or, go up to the Window menu, choose Arrange, and then choose Tile Vertically:
The Tile Vertically option in Photoshop CS3. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
In Photoshop CS3 or earlier, go to Window > Arrange > Tile Vertically.
Whichever version of Photoshop you're using, you should now see both document windows side by side showing the exact same image. The only difference is that both windows are set to a different zoom level:
A two column document layout in Photoshop CS4. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
Two views at two different zoom levels of the exact same photo.
Many people get tricked here into thinking that they've just opened a second copy of the image, but we actually have the exact same image appearing in both document windows. We've given ourselves two separate views of the same image, but it is the same image in both document windows. If you think of how your eyes work, each eye sees an object from a different angle but both eyes are seeing the same object. With our document windows, each one is showing us a different view of the image but it's the same image in both windows.
Since both windows are showing the same photo, anything you do in one of them will be instantly reflected in the other. As a quick example, I'll desaturate the image by going up to the Image menu, choosing Adjustments, and then choosing Desaturate:
Choosing the Desaturate command in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
Desaturating the image is a quick way to convert a photo to black and white, although certainly not the best way.
This instantly removes all color from the image, leaving me with a black and white photo. Notice that regardless of which document window I had selected, both windows are showing the desaturated version, and that's because both are showing the exact same photo:
Both document windows showing the desaturated image. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
Anything you do in one document window instantly appears in the other.
Just for fun, I'll grab Photoshop's History Brush from the Tools palette (I could also press the letter Y on my keyboard to select it with the shortcut):
The History Brush in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
Selecting the History Brush from the Tools palette.
The History Brush is like Photoshop's version of a time machine, allowing us to paint previous history states back in to the image. For example, I can restore the original color of the woman's cap by painting over it with the History Brush. I'll select the document window on the left (the zoomed in view) and begin painting over her cap with the brush. Even though I'm painting in the document window on the left, both document windows are showing the results of what I'm doing:
Restoring the original image color with the History Brush in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com
The History Brush paints previous history states back in to the image.
Hopefully you now have a sense of just how useful this dual view mode can be when editing images, and the nice thing is, it doesn't require an expensive dual monitor setup. Simply open the image in a second document window, do all of your editing work in the original window, zooming and panning as needed, and leave the second window set to either the Actual Pixels or Fit on Screenview modes, both of which can be accessed from the View menu at the top of the screen. Be sure to check out our full Zooming and Panning in Photoshop tutorial in our Photoshop Basics section for lots more information on how to navigate around images in Photoshop.
And there we have it!

colour replacement tool


In a previous tutorial, we looked at the Background Eraser and why it's one of the best tools in Photoshop for removing unwanted areas of an image. In this tutorial, we'll learn all about the Color Replacement Tool and how it enables us to change the color of an object in a photo without a lot of fuss or hassle. You may be wondering what on earth a tool for erasing backgrounds has to do with a tool for changing colors, and the answer is, a lot! Both of these tools use the exact same technology for detecting the pixels in the image that need to be changed. The only difference is that one of them deletes pixels entirely, the other simply changes their color. In fact, they're so similar that if you've already read through the Background Eraser tutorial and understand how its various options work, learning about the Color Replacement Tool will seem a lot like déjà vu.
The Color Replacement Tool is not the most professional way to change colors in an image and won't always give you the results you need, but it usually works well for simple tasks and it's such an easy tool to use that it's worth giving it a try before moving on to more advanced and time consuming methods.
Want an easier way to follow along with our tutorials? Download them as printable PDFs!

Selecting The Color Replacement Tool

The Color Replacement Tool was first introduced in Photoshop CS, and if you're using Photoshop CS or CS2, you'll find the Color Replacement Tool nested under the Healing Brush in the Tools palette. To access it, click and hold your mouse button down on the Healing Brush until a fly-out menu appears, then select the Color Replacement Tool from the menu.
In Photoshop CS3, Adobe changed things around a bit and moved the Color Replacement Tool in with the regular Brush Tool, so if you're using Photoshop CS3 or CS4 (which is what I'm using here), click and hold your mouse button down on the Brush Tool, then select the Color Replacement Tool from the fly-out menu:
The Color Replacement Tool in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
In Photoshop CS3 and CS4, the Color Replacement Tool is nested under the Brush Tool. In CS and CS2, it's under the Healing Brush.
With the Color Replacement Tool selected, your mouse cursor will change into a circle with a small target symbol in the center of it. As I mentioned, if you're familiar with the Background Eraser, this will look very familiar to you since both tools use the exact same cursor:
The Color Replacement Tool cursor in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The Color Replacement Tool's cursor is made up of a simple circle with a target symbol in the middle, just like the Background Eraser.
You can adjust the size of the circle directly from your keyboard using the bracket keys, which are found to the right of the letter P on most keyboards. Press the left bracket key ( [ ) to make the circle smaller or the right bracket key ( ] ) to make it larger. To change the hardness of the brush edges, just add the Shift key. Press Shift+left bracket ( [ ) to make the edges softer orShift+right bracket ( ] ) to make them harder.

How The Color Replacement Tool Works

As you drag the Color Replacement Tool over your image, Photoshop continuously samples the color that's directly under the target symbol in the center of the tool's cursor. This is the color that will be replaced, and it will be replaced with your current Foreground color. Any pixels that fall within the larger circle surrounding the target symbol that match the color being replaced will have their color changed. For example, if you pass the target symbol over an area of blue in your photo and your Foreground color is set to red, any blue pixels that the larger circle passes over will be changed to red. There's some options we can set in the Options Bar to alter the behavior of the tool (which we'll look at shortly), but essentially, that's how it works.
You can see what your Foreground color is currently set to by looking at the Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Tools palette. By default, it's set to black:
The Foreground color swatch in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Black is the default Foreground color, but it's probably not the color you'll want to use.
To change the Foreground color, simply click directly on the color swatch, then choose a new color from the Color Picker. I'll choose a green color, just for fun. Click OK to close out of the Color Picker when you're done:
Photoshop Color Picker. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Use the Color Picker to choose a new Foreground color.
If I look again in my Tools palette, I see that the Foreground color swatch has changed to the new color. If I paint on an image with the Color Replacement Tool at this point, whichever color I drag the target symbol over will be replaced with green:
The Foreground color in Photoshop has been changed. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The newly chosen color appears in the color swatch.
As an example, here's a photo of a young girl holding a balloon:
A young girl holding a blue balloon. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The girl looks happy, but the balloon looks blue.
She may look happy with her blue balloon, but what she really wanted was a green balloon. As luck would have it, I just happen to have my Foreground color currently set to green, so let's see what we can do for her. With the Color Replacement Tool selected, I'll move the target symbol over the blue balloon in the image and click my mouse button. As soon as I click, two things happen. First, Photoshop samples the blue color under the target symbol so it knows which color to replace. Then, any blue pixels that fall within the larger circle surrounding the target symbol immediately change to green, since green is now my Foreground color:
Clicking on the blue balloon with the Color Replacement Tool. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Photoshop samples the blue color and replaces all blue pixels within the circle with green.
To change the rest of the balloon to green, I just need to keep my mouse button held down and continue dragging the Color Replacement Tool over the remaining blue areas. As long as I keep the target symbol over the blue balloon and don't stray off into other areas of the image, which would cause Photoshop to sample a different color, only the blue color will be replaced with green:
Continuing to paint over the balloon with the Color Replacement Tool. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Keeping the target symbol over the blue area as I paint.
If I accidentally move the target symbol outside of the balloon and over the yellow wall behind it, Photoshop samples the color of the wall and begins changing it to green as well:
Accidentally moving the target symbol over the wrong part of the image. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
By moving the target symbol outside of the balloon, Photoshop starts replacing other colors with green.
If this happens, simply undo the last step by pressing Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac), or undo multiple steps by pressingCtrl+Alt+Z (Win) / Command+Option+Z (Mac) as many times as needed, then continue on.

Tolerance

Everything seems to be going smoothly as I paint over the balloon until I get to the edges. If you look closely, you can see some faint blue fringing that the Color Replacement Tool is having trouble with:
Blue fringing appears along the edges of the balloon. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Some of the original blue color remains along the edges of the balloon.
I mentioned a few moments ago that there are several options available to us in the Options Bar for altering the behavior of the Color Replacement Tool, and one of these options is Tolerance. The Tolerance setting determines how different a color can be from the sampled color for Photoshop to replace it with the Foreground color. The default value is 30%, which is a good starting point. Unfortunately, it's not quite high enough in this case for Photoshop to be able to include the shade of blue right along the edges of the balloon.
I'll increase my Tolerance value to 50%, which will allow the Color Replacement Tool to affect a wider range of colors:
The Tolerance option for the Color Replacement Tool. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Increasing the Tolerance setting in the Options Bar.
With a higher Tolerance value entered, I'll undo my last step and try again. This time, as I move along the edge of the balloon, the Color Replacement Tool is able to remove the blue fringing:
Painting with the Color Replacement Tool using a higher Tolerance value. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The blue along the edge of the balloon has been successfully changed to green.
I'll finish painting over the remaining areas as our once blue balloon is magically transformed into green thanks to the Color Replacement Tool and a little boost in the Tolerance value:
The girl is now holding a green balloon. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The Color Replacement Tool was able to change the balloon's color with little effort.
Sampling Colors From The Image
In the above example, I randomly chose a new color for the balloon from Photoshop's Color Picker, but I could just as easily have selected a color directly from the photo itself. To do that, with the Color Replacement Tool active, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option(Mac) key, which will temporarily switch you to the Eyedropper Tool (you'll see your cursor change into an eyedropper). Click on an area of the photo that contains the color you want to use. Photoshop will sample that color and make it your Foreground color. I'll click on the pinkish-red top she's wearing:
Using the Eyedropper Tool in Photoshop to sample a color from the image. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click on an area of the photo to sample a color.
If I look at the Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette, I see that the color I clicked on has become my Foreground color:
The Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette displays the sampled color. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The sampled color appears in the Foreground color swatch.
With the color sampled directly from the image, I can paint over the balloon once again with the Color Replacement Tool to change its color:
Coloring the balloon red with the Color Replacement Tool in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The green balloon, originally blue, is now red.
Notice that even though we've essentially painted a color over top of the balloon, it retained its shiny, reflective appearance. If we had simply grabbed the regular Brush Tool and painted over it, the balloon would look like nothing more than a flat surface with no life to it. So how was the Color Replacement Tool able to keep the balloon's texture and reflections? For the answer to that, we need to look at more of the options in the Options Bar, which we'll do next!

erasing backgroung image


In this Photoshop tutorial, we look at the Background Eraser Tool and how we can use it to easily remove background areas of an image. The Background Eraser is especially useful with photos that contain lots of fine detail along the edges between the foreground and background, like, for example, if you want to erase the sky in an image without first having to select all of the trees below it.
Don't let the name fool you, though. The Background Eraser really has nothing to do with erasing backgrounds, since Photoshop has no way of knowing what's considered the background in a photo and what isn't. It can just as easily be used to erase any part of an image, and that's because the Background Eraser is really a color eraser. It samples colors as you drag the tool over them and erases only those colors, leaving all other colors untouched. So if your sky is blue and your trees are green, the Background Eraser can easily erase the blue sky while leaving the green trees alone, at least until someone comes along and cuts them down, which makes it all the more important to protect them in your image.
The Background Eraser is, without a doubt, one of the best tools in Photoshop for removing unwanted areas of a photo, but it's not perfect and it does have one serious drawback. As an eraser tool, it physically deletes pixels from the image, which means they're gone for good, so you'll definitely want to either duplicate your Background layer first before erasing any pixels or work on a separate copy of your image.

Selecting The Background Eraser

By default, the Background Eraser is hiding behind Photoshop's regular Eraser Tool in the Tools palette. To select it, click and hold your mouse button down on the Eraser Tool until a small fly-out menu appears, then select the Background Eraser Tool from the menu:
The Background Eraser Tool in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The Background Eraser can be found nested under the regular Eraser Tool in the Tools palette.
With the Background Eraser selected, your mouse cursor will change into a circle with a small crosshair in the center of it:
The Background Eraser Tool circle and crosshair. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The Background Eraser's cursor is made up of a simple circle with a crosshair in the middle.
You can adjust the size of the circle directly from your keyboard just as you can with Photoshop's other brush tools. Press the left bracket key ( [ ) to make the circle smaller or the right bracket key ( ] ) to make it larger. You can also adjust the hardness of the edges by adding the Shift key. Press Shift+left bracket ( [ ) to make the edges softer or Shift+right bracket ( ] ) to make them harder. In general, you'll want to use hard edges with the Background Eraser, since soft edges can leave many background artifacts behind.

How The Background Eraser Works

Before we look at a real-world example of the Background Eraser in action, let's take a more basic look at how it works. Here's a simple image made up of nothing more than a few blue and green vertical columns:
A blue-green pattern. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Another Photoshop masterpiece.
If we take a quick look over at the Layers palette, we see that the image is sitting on the Background layer, which is usually the case when we first open an image in Photoshop:
The Background layer in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The original image on the Background layer.
Let's say I want to erase the blue column in the middle of the image. The way the Background Eraser works (by default, anyway) is that Photoshop samples the color that's directly underneath the small target symbol in the center of the circle. The larger circle surrounding the target symbol represents the area where Photoshop will erase pixels. Any pixels inside the circle that match the color of the pixel directly under the target symbol will be erased.
To erase the blue center column, I'll move the circle into the blue area, making sure that the target symbol in the center of the circle is directly over the blue color I want to erase. When I click my mouse button, Photoshop will sample the blue color under the target symbol and then erase all of the blue pixels that fall within the larger circle:
Clicking with the Background Eraser to remove part of the image. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Photoshop erases all of the pixels inside the circle that are the same color as the pixel under the target symbol in the center.
To erase more of the blue column, I just need to continue holding my mouse button down while I drag the Background Eraser over more of the area I want to erase. Notice that even though the circle sometimes extends into one of the green columns on either side of the blue column, they remain untouched since those pixels are not the same color as the color I'm erasing. This makes it easy to get right up along the edges of the area I want to erase. As long as I keep the small target symbol inside the blue area, Photoshop will only erase blue pixels:
Erasing more of the blue column with the Background Eraser. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
You can move the circle into other colors in the image without erasing them as long as you keep the target symbol away from them.
If I accidentally move the target symbol over one of the green columns, though, Photoshop will sample the green color and start erasing green pixels:
Moving the Backgound Eraser target symbol over a different color in the image. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Moving the target symbol over a new color causes Photoshop to change the color that it's erasing.
If you do make a mistake like this, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo it. If you need to undo multiple steps, press Ctrl+Alt+Z (Win) / Command+Option+Z (Mac) repeatedly.
The Background Layer
Notice the checkerboard pattern that appears in place of the areas I've erased. That's Photoshop's way of representing transparency on a layer, which, if you're familiar with Photoshop, may have you wondering what's going on here. A moment ago, we saw that my image was sitting on the Background layer. Photoshop treats Background layers differently from normal layers, with different rules for what we can and can't do with them. One of the things we can't do is erase pixels on them, since transparency is not allowed on a Background layer (after all, it's the background, and not being able to see through it is part of what makes it a background). How, then, did I manage to erase the pixels? Is there some sort of "Extra Strength" setting for the Background Eraser we haven't looked at yet?
Nope. What's happened is that Photoshop assumed I knew what I doing (not always the best assumption to make) and, rather than tossing up an error message complaining that I can't delete pixels on a Background layer, automatically converted the Background layer into a regular layer, which it named "Layer 0". This isn't anything terribly important, but it's still good to know what's going on:
The Background layer has been converted to a normal layer in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
When using the Background Eraser on the Background layer, Photoshop converts it to a normal layer.
Here's an example of the Background Eraser in action. As I make my way around the tree in the photo, the Background Eraser has little trouble erasing the blue sky while leaving the tree itself untouched, as long as I keep the target symbol over the sky and away from the tree:
An example of the Background Eraser in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Even though the Background Eraser extends into the tree, only the blue sky is erased.
However, if I slip and move the target symbol over the green color in the tree, Photoshop starts erasing the tree, in which case I'd need to undo the last step and try again:
An example of the Background Eraser in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Photoshop has no idea what the sky or a tree is. It cares only about the color under the target symbol.
So far, we know that Photoshop samples the color directly under the target symbol in the center of the Background Eraser's cursor, then it erases any pixels of that same color that fall within the larger circle. We also know that if we move the target symbol over a different color as we're dragging the Background Eraser around, Photoshop will sample the new color and use it as the color it should be erasing. What we've just described here is the default behavior of the Background Eraser, but it's not the only way the tool can behave. So how do we change things? We do that using the settings and options found in the Options Bar, which we'll look at next!

changing an eye colour


In this Photoshop photo retouching tutorial, we'll learn a very simple technique for changing someone's eye color in a photo using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer! Of course, there's no shortage of ways to change colors in an image with Photoshop, but whether you know which color you want to use or just want to play around and experiment, a Hue/Saturation image adjustment makes changing eye color easy, fast and fun!
Here's the image I'll be using:
A photo of a woman in a white robe sitting in tall grass. Image licensed from iStockphoto by Photoshop Essentials.com
The original image.
Let's get started!
Want an easier way to follow along with our tutorials? Download them as printable PDFs!

Step 1: Zoom In On The Eyes

Before we begin, let's make it easier to see what we're doing by zooming in on the eyes in the photo. Select the Zoom Tool from the Tools palette, or press the letter Z on your keyboard to select it with the shortcut:
Selecting the Zoom Tool from the Tools palette in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Select the Zoom Tool.
With the Zoom Tool selected, click and drag out a selection box around the eyes. This is the area we'll be zooming in to:
Drawing a selecting around the eyes with the Zoom Tool in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Drag out a selection box around the eyes.
Release your mouse button, and Photoshop fills the document window with the area you selected:
Zooming in on the eyes in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Photoshop zooms in on the selected area.

Step 2: Select The Lasso Tool

Next, we need to select the eyes so we're not affecting any other areas of the image. For that, we'll use the Lasso Tool. Select the Lasso Tool from the Tools palette, or press the letter L on your keyboard to quickly select it with the shortcut:
Selecting the Lasso Tool from the Tools palette in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Select the Lasso Tool.

Step 3: Draw Selections Around The Eyes

With the Lasso Tool selected, drag a selection around one of the eyes. Don't worry if your selection outline isn't perfect since we'll clean things up later. Once you have the first eye selected, hold down your Shift key and draw a selection around the other eye. Holding down the Shift key will add the new selection to the previous one, allowing us to select both eyes at once:
Drawing selectings around the eyes with the Lasso Tool in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Select the first eye, then hold down Shift and select the other.
We don't need the pupils in the center of the eyes selected, so let's remove them from the selection. Hold down your Alt (Win) /Option (Mac) key and drag around each pupil with the Lasso Tool. This will remove them from the selection, leaving us with only the colored area selected. Again, don't worry about being overly precise for now:
The pupils have been deselected in the image. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and drag around the pupils to deselect them.

Step 4: Add A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

With the eyes now selected, we're ready to change their color! For that, we'll use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Click on theNew Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (it's the circle split diagonally between black and white), then selectHue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers that appears:
Selecting a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Click on the New Adjustment Layer icon and choose Hue/Saturation from the list.

Step 5: Select The "Colorize" Option

If you're using Photoshop CS4 as I am here, the options and controls for the Hue/Saturation dialog box will appear inside theAdjustments Panel which is new to CS4. In Photoshop CS3 and earlier, a Hue/Saturation dialog box will appear on your screen. Select the Colorize option by clicking inside its checkbox:
Selecting the Colorize option for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Select "Colorize".
As soon as you select Colorize, you'll see the eyes change color in the document window:
The eyes now appear red after changing their color in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The eyes instantly change color.

Step 6: Adjust The Hue, Saturation And Lightness

To change the color, simply adjust the HueSaturation and Lightness options by dragging their sliders left or right. Hue will change the basic color, Saturation changes the saturation of the color, and Lightness affects the overall brightness. Be careful not to drag the Saturation or Lightness sliders too far to the right, though, since things can quickly become unnatural looking. The image in the document window will continually update as you move the sliders so you can see a live preview of the changes:
Adjusting the Hue, Saturation and Lightness controls. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
Dial in the color you want with the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders.
When you're happy with the new color of the eyes, click OK to exit out of the Hue/Saturation dialog box (Photoshop CS4 users can leave the Adjustments Panel open since there's no need to close it). Here's my image after changing the woman's eyes from blue to green:
The eyes now appear green after changing their color in Photoshop. Image © 2010 Photoshop Essentials.com
The Hue/Saturation adjustment makes it easy to select any color you want for the eyes.

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