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Fixing Red Eyed Demon Relatives - Eliminate Red Eyes with Adobe Photoshop

© Karin Rex

I don't know whether it was the twinkling lights on my Christmas tree or the very freely-flowing flutes of festive champagne, but the majority of my holiday portraits show my family and friends looking like a bunch of red-eyed Christmas demons! While I now realize that I could have prevented much of this red-eye rancor simply by using the red-eye flash on my camera, I didn't notice the problem until I started uploading my photographs to my computer and viewing them onscreen - long after the house had emptied of potential portrait patsies.

Luckily for me, my digital photography editing tool of choice -- Photoshop Elements -- makes editing out red eye rather easy.

Jumping Right In

First, I opened up one of my red-eyed relative's pictures in Photoshop Elements and, using the Zoom tool, clicked on the offending red eyes a few times to zoom in for a closer look. (Fair-haired cousin Bjorn looked rather terrifying with those big red eyes!)

After activating the Red Eye Brush Tool (located midway down on the right side of the tool palette), I jumped right in and started clicking on one of my cousin's red eyes. Yikes! Wrong move! My brush size was way bigger than the pupil I was working on, so I ended up giving my cousin a black & white eye! (The Red Eye Brush Tool essentially neutralizes color wherever it is used.) Thank goodness for the Undo command!

Finessing Some Options

This time, after choosing the Red Eye Brush Tool, I remember to check out my current Options Bar settings before starting. If you are not sure where the Options Bar is, or if it is even showing, look under the Window menu. If Options has a checkmark next to it, the bar is already visible. If Options does not have a checkmark next to it, the bar is currently hiding; just click on Options in the menu to make it visible.)

Since my previous brush settings were way too big, I figured the first thing I should do is perhaps reset the tool to its default settings. To reset the tool, I right-click on it in the Options Bar and select Reset Tool from the shortcut menu. Voila! Original settings restored, including a much smaller brush size that looks easier to handle for this task. I could have selected the brush and size manually, but I usually start with the suggested defaults and adjust as needed from there.