Help with shadows around eyes?

[lamboe80]

Hey everybody. I'm pretty new around here. I've done a couple of retouch challenges, but that's about it.
My grandfather passed away earlier this year. He could sing and play piano beautifully. My grandmother found a cassette he had recorded of himself playing and singing and I asked to borrow it. I've since recorded it with my computer, edited it and cleaned it up significantly. I'm going to make cd's and pass out to the family for Christmas. Everything is done except the coverart. For front cover, I've found this picture of him that I would love to use. His eyes are very shadowy however. I've tried my best to lighten them up, but I can't get them right without it looking unnatural. Anybody have tips to help me out? Thanks very much!
The picture is at this link:
http://www.wku.edu/~lambejt/cd%20front.jpg

[Ed_L]

Welcome to RP. There are several ways to do this (as there always is), and this is just one of them. I made a curves adjustment layer, then found the point on the curve that corresponded to the red dot on the original. I raised that point up by using the "up" arrow on the keyboard until I thought it was lightened up enough. Then I made a layer mask, and filled it with black, which"undid" what I did with curves. Then, using a soft brush, I painted with white, only in the dark areas that I wanted to lighten. If you have any questions about this technique, be sure to ask. If I don't get to answer your question, I'm certain someone else will. Good luck.

I had to edit my post because I didn't actually make a layer mask. It is already available for use when you use a curves layer. But everything else is exactly like I said above.

Ed

[lamboe80]

Thanks very much Ed! That looks better. I tried simply using the dodge tool and got a similar effect, but yours blends better. I understand your steps perfectly too, by the way.
I've got another picture of him where his eyes are very visible. I might try to extract them from the other pic and transform them up to match in this picture.

I find it very ironic that my grandfather's name was Ed and our last name starts with L, just as your username!

[Ed_L]

You're welcome, and yes, that's ironic. I hope this helps. You'll probably get other replies on this, so just pick the one that works best for you.

Ed

[sage150]

I duplicated the image then I used a quick mask to paint
around the eye area's.Afterward I did an inverse ad copy
to layer.I then used the curves to make the eye area
lighter.I then moved the eye area from the copy onto the
original and then used the opacity to blend it into a
realistic but lighter eye area.Afterward I used the eye
dropper tool to copy the lighter coloring around the
eyes and used a 17 brush set at 65 Normal to color
darker coloring and blend it in.I also used the elliptical
circle tool for the eyes themselves.I then darkened the
eyes a tad using curves.Finally I used an unsharp mask
to try to get the photo sharper.I may need a new pair of
glasses so it may not be the picture but my own eyes.
Well this is the result I achieved.
I am a real amateur and I'm certain there are easier
ways to do this.I thought I'd give it a try.

Joseph

[lamboe80]

Thanks Joseph! That's a good result also.
I went looking through some pictures last night and found one of my father with his head in this same position. So I cropped everything out except a square around his eyes and drug it onto this picture. I lowered the opacity and free transformed it to get the eyes to match up. I used a very soft edged brush to erase away the excess around my father's eyes. I used hue/saturation to match up the skin tones of my dad with my grandfather's. I then lowered the opacity further to about 30% on the eyes. I am really pleased with this result.