ERADICATING RED-EYE

Red-eye occurs when light from a camera flash reflects off an individual's retinas back onto film. An instamatic camera, designed to be small and portable, is more apt to create red-eye because its lens is set too close to the flash. This is why professional photographers use raised flash attachments that connect to the top of the camera.

STEP 1: Go to the File menu and Open the image you want to work on.

STEP 2: The best way that I have found to eliminate red-eye is by using the Sponge tool to Desaturate the red glow of the retina.

The Dodge, Sponge, and Burn tools share one icon on the toolbox, and are often referred to as Toning tools because they are used to change color tones. The Sponge tool is used to Saturate (increase color intensity) or Desaturate (decrease color intensity or eliminate color altogether) portions of an image. The Dodge tool is used to lighten tones, whereas the Burn tool darkens selected tones in an image. Both the Dodge and the Burn tools are very handy when it comes to cleaning up black and white photographs.

When you click and hold on the tiny triangle in the lower right corner of the Dodge tool icon in the toolbox, notice that several more tools emerge, including the Sponge tool at the very end. Slide across to the Sponge tool and then release the mouse.

STEP 3: Now the Sponge tool icon appears in the toolbox. Double-click on it to bring up the Toning Tools Options palette:

Set the Pressure to 100%, and select Desaturate from the drop-down menu to the left of the Pressure slider:

STEP 4: You now want to select a paintbrush from the Brushes palette that is about the same size (ideally) or smaller than the red portion of the retina.

To bring up the Brushes palette, click on the Brushes tab in the palette that also holds the Color and Swatches palette, or just select Show Brushes from the Window Menu. (If you are unsure as to how brushes are used in Photoshop, see the tip called Working With Brushes.) To select a brush, just click on one of these brush icons:

STEP 5: To ensure that you don't Desaturate any portions of the eye other than the red retina, select the red area of one eye using the Elliptical Marquee tool:

(Using the Marquee tools is covered in the tip called Making Selections.)

Now, only the area inside this selection will be desaturated when you apply the Sponge tool and you won't have to worry about desaturating any of the blue in his eye:

STEP 6: Click once on Sponge tool icon in the toolbox to select it again, and brush over the red portion of the eye until all the red has turned to a dark gray or black. Repeat for the other eye.