How To Whiten Eyes In Photoshop – Essential Retouching Techniques
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Whiten Eyes in Photoshop using targeted selections, a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and Blend If to brighten the sclera without looking fake.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to whiten eyes in Photoshop. You will work with selections, masks, and selective adjustments to whiten your eyes.
These are all essential must-know retouching tools and techniques to enhance eyes in Photoshop.
Before we start whitening eyes, we need to remove blemishes and distractions from the white of the eye. For example, the veins are found alongside the eye.
Key Takeaways
- You do not need a perfectly precise selection around the eye. The Feather slider and Blend If clean up the edges afterward.
- A Hue/Saturation adjustment layer keeps the whitening effect editable, unlike painting directly on the pixels.
- The Spot Healing Brush Tool‘s Lighten mode removes red veins without erasing the eye’s natural texture.
- Splitting the black Blend If handle in half creates a smooth transition instead of a hard, visible edge.
- Subtle adjustments look more realistic. Push the sliders further only to see the effect clearly, then dial them back before you finish.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Step 01: Create a New Layer
- Step 02: Use the Spot Healing Brush Tool to Remove Distractions
- Lighten or Darken Modes
- Paint Over Distractions
- Step 03: Select The White of The Eyes
- Step 04: Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and Apply a Mask
- Step 05: Refine The Layer Mask With Density and Feather
- Step 06: Use Blend If to Better Target the White of The Eyes
- Step 07: Whiten Eyes In Photoshop
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to isolate the white of the eyes with the Elliptical Marquee Tool
- How to remove red veins with the Spot Healing Brush Tool
- How to whiten eyes with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and a mask
- How to soften a mask edge with the Density and Feather sliders
- How to target only the white of the eyes with Blend If
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2018 (version 19.0) or the current version
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom tool | Z | Z |
| Intersect selection | Alt Shift drag | Option Shift drag |
| Subtract from selection | Alt drag | Option drag |
| Add to selection | Shift drag | Shift drag |
| Reveal the Layer Mask thumbnail | Alt click mask thumbnail | Option click mask thumbnail |
| Split a Blend If handle | Alt click handle | Option click handle |
| Undo | Ctrl Alt Z | Command Option Z |
| Group layers | Ctrl G | Command G |
| Fit image to screen | double-click Hand tool | double-click Hand tool |
Step 01: Create a New Layer
To work non-destructively, first create a new layer. Click on the New Layer Icon in the Layers panel. Then double-click on the layer name and rename it “Heal.“
Tip: It’s a good habit to always name your layers, so you always know what they contain.
Step 02: Use the Spot Healing Brush Tool to Remove Distractions
Select the Spot Healing Brush Tool from the Toolbar.
In the Options Bar make sure that you have Sample All Layers checked.
This option will allow you to sample from the original image, and paint in the new layer which contains no pixels.
Lighten or Darken Modes
Although the Spot Healing Brush Tool does a fantastic job removing distracting elements, the default settings are not always ideal. In some cases, you can get better results by using the Modes found in the Options Bar.
Most of the time you will have to decide between Darken or Lighten.
The best method for deciding which mode to use is to look at the blemish or distraction you are trying to remove. Ask yourself: is the distraction darker or brighter than the background?
In this case, the red veins are darker than the white of the eye, so the distraction is darker. If something is darker, you want to “lighten” it to remove it. If the blemish is brighter, you want to “darken” it instead.
From the Mode drop-down, select Lighten.
This option allows you to only target the darker pixels, leaving the brighter ones intact. This helps you maintain the original detail and texture giving you much better results.
This same choice between Lighten and Darken applies any time you use the Spot Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop.
Paint Over Distractions
To make things easier to understand, we will work only with one eye. In your image, you will have to repeat the following steps a second time for the second eye.
After you selected the Lighten Mode, you can paint over the areas that have red veins and watch them disappear!
Step 03: Select The White of The Eyes
Once you’ve removed all the distractions from the white of the eye, you can focus on making the selection that will isolate the eye.
Start by selecting the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Then click-and-drag alongside the top arch of the eye. Try to match the top curvature, but don’t worry if you can’t get a precise selection. Do the best that you can.
Keep in mind that as you’re holding down the mouse button to make the selection, you can also hold Space Bar to reposition the selection.
Release Space Bar and the mouse button once you have matched the top curvature. We will work with the bottom curvature next.
Hold AltShift (Windows) or OptionShift (macOS) to intersect the selection. You will notice an X over your cursor once you hold down these keys.
Then make a selection that matches the bottom curvature of the eye.
Once you release the mouse button, notice that the second selection intersected the first selection, and it made an excellent selection around the eye.
Then fine-tune the selection if you need to.
This selection technique might seem a little complicated, but with practice, it should become effortless.
The next step is to remove the iris from the selection. Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS), which shows a minus icon on your cursor. Then drag around the iris to subtract it from the selection.
Remember that you can use Space Bar to move the selection as you create it.
Step 04: Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and Apply a Mask
Now that you have a selection around the white of the eyes, you can create an Adjustment Layer that will apply the whitening effect to the eyes.
With the selection around the white of the eye active, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon and select Hue/Saturation.
Current versions of Photoshop show color swatches pulled from your photo right in the Hue/Saturation panel, which makes isolating one color even easier. See everything that changed in the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Notice that the selection disappeared and it becomes the Layer Mask on the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Any adjustments made with this Adjustment Layer will only affect the white of the eyes.
Step 05: Refine The Layer Mask With Density and Feather
The next step is to refine the mask and soften the edges. If the edges of your mask are too sharp, then the adjustments will be noticeable and not realistic.
To better see how the mask affects your image make an extreme adjustment. For example, increase the Lightness to +100 to make the white of the eyes completely white. Obviously, this is not a realistic effect, but it clearly shows you the edges of the mask.
Click on the Layer Mask thumbnail to activate it. The white outline around the thumbnail tells you that the Layer Mask is active.
In the Properties Panel, you have two sliders. The Density slider and the Feather slider. These sliders allow you to adjust the mask non-destructively. This means that you can change the adjustment applied to the mask at a later time.
The Density slider controls the opacity of the mask. And the Feather slider controls the sharpness of the edge of the mask.
When you drag the Feather slider to the right, you will see how it blurs the edge of the mask.
Fine-tune the Feather Slider until the edge of your masks matches the photo that you are working with.
Step 06: Use Blend If to Better Target the White of The Eyes
To make sure that you are only targeting the white of the eyes, use the Blend If options to target the brighter pixels in your photo.
From the Layers Panel, right-click on the layer and select “Blending Options.” This will bring up the Layer Style dialog box.
Under Blend If you can use the sliders to selectively show and hide pixels based on their luminosity.
If you are not familiar with Blend If, do not worry. The sliders are simple once you see them in action below.
Drag the black point in the “Underlying Layer” section to the right, to bring out the darker pixels from the layers below. That way the whitening effect is not applied to the eyelashes and other dark areas of the eye.
By default, the transitions are very sharp and not very realistic. To smooth the transitions between visible and invisible pixels break apart the black handle.
Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click on the handle to split it in half. Separating the two handles creates a smoother transition between the visible and invisible pixels, which removes the sharp edge.
Note: You do not need to be precise when you create the selections. Blend If and the Feather slider refine the edges for you.
Step 07: Whiten Eyes In Photoshop
Now it’s time to brighten and whiten the eyes.
When retouching, you always want to make subtle adjustments. In this example, I will push adjustments further than I normally would, to make them more noticeable in the tutorial. But remember that when you’re working on retouching eyes, subtle adjustments are best.
Select the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and reduce the saturation to remove some of the red in the eye. You can also increase the Lightness to make the eyes brighter.
This is my final result!
Whitened eyes stand out even more once the surrounding skin tones look right. See how to fix skin tones in Photoshop next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Select the white of the eyes with the Elliptical Marquee Tool, then create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Lower the saturation and raise the lightness to whiten and brighten the eyes. The selection becomes the adjustment layer’s mask automatically.
Use the Spot Healing Brush Tool on a new, empty layer with Sample All Layers turned on. Set the tool’s mode to Lighten, since the veins are darker than the surrounding white, then paint over them.
Compare the blemish to its background. If it is darker, like a red vein on the white of the eye, Lighten mode targets only the darker pixels and leaves the rest untouched. Use Darken mode when the blemish is brighter than its surroundings instead.
Make a rough selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool along the top curve of the eye. Hold AltShift (Windows) or OptionShift (macOS) and drag a second selection along the bottom curve to intersect them. Then hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and drag around the iris to subtract it.
A sharp mask edge makes the whitening effect look pasted on. Drag the Feather slider in the Properties panel until the transition matches the edge of the eye in your photo.
Blend If hides the adjustment on pixels below a chosen brightness, so the whitening effect only shows on the brightest part of the eye. Splitting the black handle with Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) keeps the transition smooth instead of hard-edged.
Yes. A Curves or Selective Color adjustment layer can whiten eyes too. A Hue/Saturation layer is used here because it gives direct control over saturation and lightness in one place.
Yes, repeat the same selection, masking, and adjustment steps on the second eye. Working on one eye at a time keeps each selection accurate.
Conclusion
And there you have it! That’s how to whiten eyes in Photoshop!
You now know how to whiten eyes in Photoshop using selections, a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and Blend If.
The same masking and Blend If techniques carry over to other retouching tasks, from removing wrinkles to matching skin tones.
Watch the full video above, and comment on the video if you have a question.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
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Next, learn how to add realistic skin texture in Photoshop.
Related Links
Final Image
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