whitened the eye whites

[martino papesso]

Hi, it has been pointed out elsewhere that in my portraits sometimes I tend to whiten the eyes a bit too much, and the final result looks a bit weird or fake, so I would like to know if any of you knows an easy (maybe measurable) way to understand how much to whiten without going "too far".

Thanks

[Sara86]

Re: whitened the eye whites

I find it's important to remember the eye's a 3-dimensional, curved object, and not a flat surface.

So when you lighten the whites of the eyes, keep the natural gradient. Consider where the light's coming from, and whether they need lightening at all.

Don't try and find a way to measure it. Look at your images. Learn to see them as other people see them, and only retouch problems.

[klev]

Re: whitened the eye whites

You overdo a lot of things, judging by the questions and examples you have posted up to this point. I think you would benefit greatly if you focus on learning about the structure of the muscles and bones rather than photoshop tactics. Bad photoshop techniques don't show up as overdone images. They show up as blurry borders or off color patches.

Try looking at other images while you work, and focus on the eyes. This can be a combination of unretouched images and images where you like the retouching. Overall I wouldn't go too crazy with the whites of the eyes. Most of the time masking them out and applying a very minor curve adjustment is enough. Make color correction as needed to reduce redness or whatever. If they feel too flat, darken the outer edge of the irises slightly to make the subject appear more focused.