Retouching Red Eyes (not red-eye)

[gracelight]

I occasionally come across eyes that are reddish around the eyes and in the white part of the eyes. This is not red-eye but the skin or whites are just reddish or a bit bloodshot. Makes the people look tired, sick, drunk or stoned.... Is there an easy fix for this? Or at least some suggestion on where I should start? I have tried many methods to reduce the reddishness but nothing that makes me whoop for joy. Thanks for the space.

Grace

One of the methods I have been using in PS is adding an adjustment layer which is a photo filter in the color green and then painting it on the areas that are red at 30% opacity and building it up to the point it looks somewhat okay.

[juliewood]

For the actual whites of the eyes (not the skin around it), the best way I have found is to create a hue/saturation layer and pull the reds down to -50, then add a black layer mask and paint the whites of the eyes in. (Or you could select the whites before adding the layer.)

For the skin around it, I create a new layer, then sample from a good color near the eye. I paint over the bad area with that color, then change the layer blending mode to either color or lighten (depending on whether it is dark or just discolored) and bring the layer opacity down to about 10-25%.