It's all about the eyes

I've been getting a lot of questions about how I edit eyes in my pictures so here it is!

I do all this in Lightroom using the brushes. You can do the same thing in Photoshop using the burn and dodge tools but it's so much easier in Lightroom!

First, I take a premade brush that adds exposure, brightness, saturation, and clarity. I go over the entire eye with it. Sometimes this is enough for the look I want.

If I want to make the eye more dramatic, I take a new brush for negative exposure and darken the entire pupil and around the edge of the iris where it is naturally darker. (Thanks Brittany for the tip!) Usually this is enough for the look I want. If the color in the iris doesn't pop enough, I will use the same brush from step one and brighten it even more. If the white part of the eye looks yellow or grey, I use a brush to desaturate and brighten the white areas.

Here are some before and afters so you can see the effect of this process.




You'll notice the change is very subtle. That is what you want - just a little pop. If you do it too much they eyes can look really fake and I'm not a fan of that look.





Here are some pics from a bridal shoot I just did. I will do a post after she gets married of all my favs but wanted to use these because they have such a dramatic before and after look. The before pictures are the ones straight out of the camera with no editing.



If you would like to see me doing a video tutorial of this process, here is a link to one I did for a workshop.

Lightroom Eyes