With the advent of Photoshop, which not for mere editing, one can call it a tool that helps in the creation and enhancement of images! There are endless tools and techniques which help the modern-day photographers and graphic designers immensely. This tutorial is all about how one can darken the Iris Rims with the help of Photoshop.
Following are the steps towards darkening the Iris Rim:
Step 1:
The eyes in the above image are on the darker end. We need to brighten the iris for the best results by creating a new layer. For this, Press ctrl+shift+N/ cmd+shift+N and name the new layer as “Dodge”. Opt for Fill via Edit, press on 50% Gray and press “ok”. After that, the image will be filled with grey colour.
The Blend Mode should be changed to “Dodge” layer for switching over to Overlay.
Step 2:
From the tool panel, select Dodge tool or simply tap and hold Shift+O repeatedly, until it appears. Set the range as Midtones and exposure to 30%.
Tap ctrl+(+)/cmd+(+) for a large amount of zoom in and apply on her iris, the dodge tool.
After doing that, the image shall look like the one shown below.
Repeat the same with her left eye.
Step 3:
It’s now time to darken the iris, as we have brightened her iris. Here comes the lifesaver tool, the Elliptical Marquee Tool is chosen from the tool panel. For this, tap on shift+M repeatedly until it appears. Use Elliptical Marquee Tool encircle the iris.
Let’s move on to the right eye. Without deselecting the previous selection, tap on Shift and hold for creating a new selection.
Tap on “Background” layer from the layer panel to activate the same. To open the layer panel, press F7.
To duplicate the selection onto a new layer, press ctrl+J/cmd+J and rename it as “eyes”.
Step 4:
Click on Layer followed by New Adjustment Layer and lastly Levels. To adjust the setting as shown in the image, click on Create Clipping Mask.
Tap and hold on to Ctrl/Cmd and later tap on the layer thumbnail of the layer “eyes”.
This should result in the loading of selection.
Step 5:
Press Select followed by Modify and Contract and enter 15 pixels as the value.
To feather your selection press shift+F6, press 5 and select “ok”.
Step 6:
Enable the “level” adjustment layer and black as the foreground colour. Tap on Alt+Backspace/Opt+Delete chooses the colour, black. To deselect, choose either Ctrl+D/Cmd+D.
Since her iris rims are too dark, the double clock on the layer of level adjustment layer to make it brighter. Adjust the setting as shown in the figure below.
Step 7:
Since we had used the Elliptical Marquee Tool to encircle, it wouldn’t have turned out to be perfect. So, it has to be fixed. Activate Eyes layer by opting it. Tap on Layer, followed by New Layer Mask and Reveal All.
Now catch hold of Brush Tool from the tool panel or one could simply press Shift+B repeatedly until it appears. Now paint all over the damaged areas such as eyelids. The resultant of the painting will look similar to the image shown below.
So finally, with all the Photoshop, the image shall look like the one shown here.
Eureka! This way, one could easily darken the iris rims and ace the techniques of Photoshop.
