Popping the Eyes
This is a very simple effect that is used to really pop the eyes in photo’s for various reasons. I’ve seen this used on magazine covers for the airbrushed cover-girl, or even for a simple photo manipulation. Let’s get started.
I found a stock image on deviantART.com that I really liked. You can find it below:
Let’s start by duplicating our beginning layer, which would be just the model. This helps us keep what we originally had so we can easily go back to our starting point if we mess up, or we can use it to switch on and off the edited layer to see how dramatic our effects are on the new layer. So, click and drag your background layer down to the “New Layer” button at the bottom of the layers window.
Select the Burn Tool (Keyboard Shortcut: O)
While I’m using a tablet and have pressure sensitivity enabled, you may not be using a tablet. In the case that you are not using a tablet, set your exposure to 50% with your burn tool. After setting your exposure, you can now go over, “burn”, the outside of the iris (the color of the eye).
Now you’re going to do the same exact thing only you are going to hold the ALT key (Option button on mac, I believe) and go over the middle of the iris.
Do the same with the opposite eye and zoom out and look at the results. With a bit of tweaking and editing I came up with this ending photograph:
