Friday, August 31, 2007

eyes that glisten

Time and again I'm very much fascinated by portraits with bewitching eyes. As they say, eyes are the window to one's soul and girls with sparkling eyes pierces the soul and emotion of its viewers. The technique I have been using to put a sparkle to my portraits' eyes came from a flickr friend named Elizabeth Salib who unselfishly shared her PS technique with no strings attached.
There are a lot of means to achieve a certain effect in Photoshop and this technique is just one of those ways of getting eyes that glisten. This is particularly useful in photos of head shots when you want to draw the attention of your viewers to the eyes of your subject. First, zoom in your image to isolate the eyes to get a bigger workspace. Duplicate the image to create a background copy. Then select the Dodge Tool with settings at 3% Exposure, Range at Highlights and slowly dodge to lighten the white part of the eyes to your desired taste. Next would be to dodge the iris to reveal its true color. This technique is particularly effective if you use it on people with colored eyes.

After getting the effect you wanted, duplicate the Background Layer to get a Background Copy 2. Move the Background Copy 2 layer above the Background Copy. Blend in Color Mode and adjust the opacity of the blending in the Background Copy layer. The result is a glowing iris and a more defined eyes making your portraits a lot more stunning with ethereal look.

Special thanks to my models above, namely Apple David and Sheena Marie Uy, respectively. The first two portraits were taken in available light with Apple David on location at Sonya's Garden in Alfonso, Cavite while the last two portraits were also taken in available light with Sheena on location at the Acosta-Pastor Residence in Batangas City.

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