Pet Red Eye

Humans have red eye when the flash is near the camera.

The light from the flash strikes the retina.

Some of the light is absorbed by the rods and cones, and some is reflected back out of the eye.

The reflected light is red because the retina is red from blood.

Pets may have red eye, but often display other colors, such as gold, green, and white.

The non-red colors occur when an animal has a membrane called the tapetum lucidum.

The membrane improves night vision.

As described, in humans, light enters the eye and strikes the retina.

The light that isn't absorbed bounces back out.

In animals with tapetum lucidum membranes, the non-absorbed light strikes the membrane, and bounces back onto the retina for a second time.

The other colors occur when the light reflects off of the tympanic membrane

Be sure to check off as you go along.

Preparation

1) Preserve your original file.

If you haven't already done so, go to Preserve Your Original File.

2) Create a Background copy layer.

If you haven't already done so, go to Create a Background Copy Layer.

Removal of Colors (Not White Eye)

If the animal has white-eye, go to Removal of White Eye.

1) Use the Zoom tool to fill the screen with the red area in one of the eyes.

Again, one of the red areas should fill the entire screen.

2) Make sure the foreground color is black.

Pupils are generally black, unless the animal has cataracts.

If you haven't already, go to Foreground & Background Colors.

If black looks unnatural, go to Removal of White Eye.

3) Select the Color Replacement tool.

This tool is located with the Brush tool, the Impressionistic Brush tool, and the Pencil tool.

Don't confuse the Color Replacement tool with Color Replace (Enhance > Adjust Color > Replace Color).

4) Do the following in the options bar.

Brush Preset Picker	Open Brush Preset Picker by clicking the tiny black triangle next to icon of the brush. Make sure the Hardness is at 100%, the maximum amount of feathering. 100% is the default setting.
Mode	Change Mode from Color to Luminosity. If you use Color, instead, the brightness of the red area is preserved. The red area probably isn't a dark red. It's a medium red. When using the Color setting, a black brush applied to the medium red produces medium black (gray). So, make sure you change the Mode from Color to Luminosity.
Sampling	Sampling should be on Continuous, the default setting. You can experiment with Once as well. You won't use Background Swatch. This setting changes only areas with the background color.
Limits	Limits should be on Contiguous, the default setting. Contiguous means that only red pixels that are touching each other will be changed.
Tolerance	Tolerance should be on 30%, the default setting. If the color isn't being selected properly, increase or decrease this setting. Use lower tolerance values when the color is the same everywhere. If the color isn't consistent, use a higher tolerance value. Again, start with 30%.
Anti-alias	Anti-alias should be set to on, the default setting. Anti-aliasing smoothes the edges of the replacement color.

5) Adjust the size of the brush so it's smaller than the red area.

6) Click and drag the brush in the red area.

Tips

Use a smaller brush when:

• Working near the any catch lights in the eye.

Catch lights from flash are white reflections of the flash on the surface of the eye.

• Working near the iris.

Avoid trying to do the retouching all in one swoop of the brush.

If you do so, and you make a mistake, you have to start over.

Click and drag, and release the brush, repeatedly.

Remember, you've enlarged the photograph greatly.

You don't have to achieve perfection.

For example, if there's a little glow of red left, it probably won't show at normal magnifications.

7) Repeat for the other eye.

Removal of White Eye

1) Use the Zoom tool to fill the screen with the white area in the eye.

Again, one of the white areas should fill the entire screen.

2) Select the white area with the Magic Wand tool.

Contiguous should be selected in the options bar.

3) Feather the selection.

Go to Select > Feather.

4) If the selection is too small, go to Select > Grow.

This command looks for white pixels outside the selected area that are touching the selected white pixels.

Don't use Select > Similar, as whites elsewhere in your photograph will be selected.

You could use Select > Modify > Expand.

You decide how many pixels to increase the size, whereas the Grow command does this for you.

5) Copy the selected area to a new layer.

Go to Layer > New > Layer Via Copy, or press Ctrl + j.

6) Change the name of the new layer to, say, Left Eye.

Double click the name in the layer, Layer 1, and enter the new name.

7) Lock the transparent pixels on the Left Eye layer.

Make sure the Left Eye layer is active (highlighted).

Click the checkerboard icon that's to the right of Lock, at the top of the Layers panel.

8) Make sure the foreground color is black.

Pupils are generally black, unless the animal has cataracts.

If you haven't already, go to Foreground & Background Colors.

If black looks unnatural, try a dark gray.

9) Select the Brush tool.

10) Make sure Left Eye layer is active (highlighted), and brush the white area.

Repeat for the other eye.

Alternative Method

Here's an alternative method using Saturation and Levels.

After you change the name of the new layer (step six above), do the following.

7) Make sure Left Eye layer is active (highlighted).

8) Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Hue/Saturation, or press Ctrl + u.

9) Move the saturation slider to -100.

10) Go to Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels, or press Ctrl + L.

11) Move the shadow and midtone sliders to adjust the tone.

12) Repeat for the other eye.

Saving the Photograph

If you haven't already done so, go to Saving Files.