You might think that making a person's eyes in a photograph pop with color is difficult to do. However, I am here to tell you that not only is it easy but I can show you how with a few easy steps!
Here is a photo of my nephew, Jacob.
As much as I adore the original, I wanted to enhance a few things.
TIP: Do your best not to 'over enhance' your photo. Keep things as natural as possible.
** For this photo: I enhanced the subjects skin complexion, added a bit of sparkle to his eyes, and slightly adjusted the photos exposure, contrast and clarity tones, yet still keeping it natural as can be.
Photo Stats
ISO: 6400
Focal Length: 75 mm
Exposure: 1/320
Aperture: f/4,0
Lens: EF75-300 mm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T5i
Step 1: Open your Light Room 5 software (these techniques will also work for LR 4) and import the photo you want to edit. Once you have imported your photo, click on the [Develop] tab located in the upper right hand side of the screen.
Step 2: After clicking on the Develop tab you will see what is called your Histogram (this is located on the far right hand side of your screen). Underneath your histogram, you will see a series of buttons - Crop Overlay, Spot Removal, Red Eye Correction, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter and Adjustment Brush. Click on the [Adjustment Brush Tab].
Step 3: Once you click on the Adjustment Brush, you will see more serious of buttons - Exposure, Contrast, Clarity, Shadows, etc....scroll down just a little until you see where it says 'Brush Size'. Adjust the size of your brush to fit to your liking. TIP: I personally recommend keeping it at 5.7-6.8 but it will depend on how big of an area you are wanting to enhance. In this case, it will be the subject's eyes.
Step 4: Once you have the brush size you want, click on the subject's eyes but be sure to change your settings on Clarity, Feather, Flow and Density all to 100% by moving the slider all the way to the right (you can always adjust these later if you want). When you have finished clicking on the eyes, you will see a small black circle in the middle of the pupil (do not fret, this is how it is supposed to look). TIP: By clicking on the black circle, everything you have painted over with your adjustment brush tool will turn to red. This will help you not 'paint' out of the lines and keep you solely focused on enhancing the eyes. You can always sharpen the eye lashes, too -- as well as other areas.
Step 5: Next, to enhance the subject's eyes, simply move the slider on the [Exposure] tab. Increasing the exposure will allow more light to enter the eyes (this is what makes them *POP*) and decreasing the exposure will cause the eyes to look more darker. Adjust the amount to your own liking. TIP: I usually keep my exposure setting at about 1.88-2.07 depending on how much light I had to work with when the photograph was taken.
Step 6: Once you have adjusted your exposure settings, then you can play around with the other settings, such as: Contrast, Shadows, Highlights, etc until you have achieved the look you want. After you have adjusted everything you want adjusted, simply click 'NEW' to add another mask layer to your photo. The [NEW] button is located directly underneath the [Adjustment Brush] button -- (it will say New | Edit). At this point, you will see the changes that you have made to the subject's eyes. TIP: I recommend displaying a side by side comparison of a before and after photo (as seen above as the photo example). This will help you when you edit your photo(s).
Step 7: Now, you have enhanced the subject's eyes (you can even change the color of the eyes) you are ready to save your edited version of your photo to use as for web or printing. However, the most important thing is to just have fun and play around with the editing techniques!
I hope this tutorial has helped you in anyway possible. However, if you should find yourself becoming confused, you can always go to The Coffee Shop Blog's Tutorial on Eye-Popping-Ehnhancement page and view Rita's instructions (are similar to mine).
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