Recolour & Enhance Eyes with Affinity Photo
Part 3
But we don't do subtle, so let's slide the opacity back up to 100%!
You can also control the highlights with the highlights layer. Open it up, and you can adjust the brightness of the highlights with the brightness slider. In the example photo, we've just reduced the brightness slightly, to 85%.
You can set the intensity of the Highlights layer by selecting it in the layers panel and changing its opacity.
You can control the brightness of the shadows using the Shadows layer in the same way. Open up the shadows layer and set the brightness to the appropriate level. In the example photo, we have set the brightness all the way down to minus 100 percent.
Alternatively, you can change the shadow layer's opacity, which will effectively alter its brightness.
So to summarise, using the adjustment layers we have created, you have full control over the colour and tone of the eyes in the photo.
There are a couple of other enhancements we can do to eyes to make them pop a little bit more.
The first one is to add a little bit of clarity to the eyeball. This will make them look a little bit more alive.
Select the Background layer, then click the Live Filters icon, and select Clarity Filter.
For now, drag the clarity slider all the way to the maximum amount.
Click the Paintbrush icon.
Make sure white is the active colour in the colour picker.
Press Ctrl + I to invert the mask.
Use the Paintbrush tool to paint the mask back in over both eyeballs. Include the eyeballs, the iris and the pupils.
Bring the Clarity dialog back up for this layer by double clicking the square on the layer panel.
Set the Clarity to a point where it's not too much. In the example photo, we've gone with a radius of 2.7.
It's very subtle, but this clarity adjustment just gives a little bit of pop to the eyes. We recommend not over-using the clarity filter too much on eyes, as it can make them look a little glassy.
We are now going to sharpen up the eyelashes and the eyebrows.
Click the Live Filters icon, and select Unsharp Mask Filter.
For now, on the Live Unsharp Mask dialog that appears, set the Factor to maximum, and the Radius high enough so that we can definitely see the effect.
Click the Paintbrush tool icon.
Make sure white is selected in the colour picker.
Press Ctrl + I to invert the mask.
Paint the mask back in, fully over the areas where there are eyelashes, and the eyebrows.
We've now recoloured the eyes, and completed some other enhancements. Let's take a look at the before and after at this point.
First, select the Eye Colour group, and then, holding down shift, click the Clarity and Unsharp Mask layers. The group and both layers will now be highlighted in the layers panel, and you can use one of the checkboxes to toggle all three off/on at once. Using this method, we can see the photo before and after our adjustments.
Before:
After:
We are now going to do one more adjustment! We are going to make the model in the photograph look more alert by increasing the size of the eye's pupils.
Click on the background layer to select it, and duplicate it by pressing Ctrl + J, so we can work on the duplicate without affecting the original.
Click the Liquify Persona icon in the toolbar at the top.
Zoom in by pressing Ctrl and scrolling the mouse wheel.
Reduce the brush size so that it is a little smaller than the pupils. You can change the brush size by holding down ctrl, both mouse buttons and moving the mouse left and right. Or by using the [ and ] keys.
Click the Liquify Freeze icon.
Apply some freeze to each of the catch lights (the white lights in the pupils) by painting on them. Now, when increase the pupil size, the catch lights themselves won't resize.
