Using The Red Eye Tool Non-Destructively

This photoshop tutorial will show you how to use Photoshop CS2's Red Eye tool in a non-destructive way. The technique that I will explain is unique because as far as I know it hasn't been discussed in any book/magazine or on any web site.

I will also show you how to use the red eye tool to create a mask that you can use for any kind of red eye correction. The technique itself might be confusing to beginners, but because of the detailed steps and large amount of screenshots it shouldn't be too difficult to end this tutorial with success.

Whether you're planning to use this technique for non-destructive red eye removal is all up to you, but the main purpose of the tutorial is to show you how can use a combination of masks, channels and blending modes to do some fascinating things.

1. Basic red eye removal

For this tutorial we're going to use the following image:

Save this image to your computer's hard drive by right clicking on it in your browser and selecting Save picture as...
Open this picture in Photoshop.

Duplicate the Background layer by dragging/dropping its thumbnail onto the Create a new layer icon :

Select the Red Eye tool in the tool bar:

With the tool selected use the following settings in the options bar:

Pupil Size: 50%
Darken Amount: 70%:

Make sure that the Background copy layer is the active layer (it will have a dark gray background in the layers palette):

Now remove the red in each eye by making a rough selection like this:

Note: sometimes the Red Eye Tool leaves some red behind. In that case just press Ctrl + Z ( Command + Z on the Mac) and try again:

2. Put red eye correction on a separate layer

We just did a pretty easy red eye correction, but the result is destructive, meaning that it affected our original image.

In order to turn it into a non-destructive edit we need to separate the actual correction.
First we need to change the layer's blending mode; make sure that the Background copy layer is the active layer (it will have a dark gray background in your layers palette)...

... and set the layer's blending mode to Difference:

Your document window will now show the difference between the two images:

To be able to get a separate layer for what we actually see in our document window (result of two blended layers), we need to merge all visible layer on a separate layer by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E (command + Option + Shift + E on the Mac):

Memorize this shortcut. It's a lot of keys you need to press, but it a very useful shortcut that you will use more and more over time.

We can now remove the Background copy layer by dragging/dropping it onto the Delete layer icon :

Continue by renaming Layer 1 to Red Eyes by double clicking on its name:

Our document window will now still show the black background with the two red eyes because we haven't set the proper blending mode yet, so set the blending mode of the Red Eyes layer to Difference:

Your document should now show the image with the corrected red eyes:

As a final step you can consider to right click (Control + click on the Mac) on the eye icon in front of the Red Eyes layer and to select Red as the color to mark this layer:

Color coding layers can be useful during photo retouching, because especially with non-destructive editing you quite often end up with lots of layers layers and without proper names or color coding you can easily lose track.

3. Taking it a step further

Note: The purpose of step 3 is to show how you can take things a step further, to increase your understanding about channels and masks and how they can work together to achieve your goals. However only step 1 and 2 are needed to understand non-destructive use of the red eye tool.

Notice that our Red Eyes layer is pretty much completely black. When we see something like this we should immediately think about... yes, masks.

So is there a way to use the result of Red Eyes layer as a mask? Yes, by using channels.
Let's look at the channels by clicking on the channels tab:

Notice that it's not only showing the content of our current layer (Red Eyes), but all visible layers instead. So to see only the current layer we have to make the Background layer invisible. First click on the Layers tab and then click on the eye icon in front of the Background layer, which will make this layer invisible. The return to the channels by clicking on the channels tab in your layers palette:

Click on every channel and notice how the red channel would be the proper candidate for a mask, which is obvious since we're attacking the red in the eyes:

I'm now going to show you how you can turn the content of a single channel into a mask.

First select the Red channel:

Select the content of this channel by pressing Ctrl + A (command + E on the Mac) or by choosing in the menu Select / All.
Copy the content of this selection to your clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C (command + C on the Mac) or by choosing in the menu Edit / Copy.
Remove the selection by pressing Ctrl + D (Command + D on the Mac) or by choosing in the menu Select / Deselect.

Click on the thumbnail of the RGB channel(A) to activate all channels (all will now have a in front of them).
Click on the Layers tab (B) to return to the layers palette.

The next step is to make the Background layer visible again by clicking inside the box marked with the arrow (A); the icon will reappear.
Now remove the Red Eyes layer by dragging/dropping it onto the Delete layer icon (B).
Continue by clicking on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon in your layers palette (C):

Select Hue/Saturation...
Click on the OK button to leave the Hue/Saturation window for now.
Rename this layer to Red Eyes Correction and change the color to red (right clicking its eye icon ):

Alt + click (Option + click on the Mac) on the thumbnail of the mask (A in previous screenshot).
Right now your document window should be completely white and that's because we've opened the mask in our document window. Only this method allows us to paste content to the mask.
Now past the content of our clipboard (the content of the red channel of our old Red Eyes layer) to our mask by using the shortcut Ctrl + V (Command + V on the Mac) or by using the menu: Edit / Paste

Now open the Hue/Saturation adjustment window by double clicking on its icon in the layers palette:

Enter a value of -100 for Saturation and a value of -100 for lightness and click OK:

You'll notice that there's still some red left in the eyes after making this correction:

The reason is because our mask doesn't have enough contrast:

We can fix that by using tools like Levels, Curves, Brightness & Contrast, etc.
Let's use Levels for this one; click once on the thumbnail of the layer mask to make it active (it will now have a double border):

Select in the menu Image / Adjustments / Levels...
Move the white slider to the left (A) until it reads 110 in the box labeled with B or just type the value inside that box:

Click OK when you're done.
The contrast of the mask is now improved...

...and the pupils are now black:

Feel free to make a final Hue & Saturation adjustment with new settings.

Final words

Red eyes... there are many solutions to correct it and using a hue & saturation layer in combination with a mask like in our Change the color of an eye tutorial is just one of them, although it has become pretty much obsolete for those users of Photoshop CS2, since its Red Eye tool is already doing an excellent job.
The advantage of the method shown in step 1-2 of the current tutorial however is that it's non-destructive, meaning that you can adjust the result or remove it completely. Non-destructive editing is all about having full control. Photoshop offers that for example with masks, adjustment layers and layer styles, but some things are more complicated and that's how tutorials like these can hopefully help.

Our non-destructive editing tutorial has more examples of non-destructive editing and can help you understand its power.
Don't forget that to be successful with non-destructive editing you have to change your mind set, meaning that you shouldn't always try to copy traditional methods that are part of drawing or coloring on paper, but instead you need to try to understand what it is that Photoshop can offer what traditional methods can't.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.