SNL Photography emailed me to ask about making eyes pop. I use two different methods depending on what looks best or how much of a hurry I’m in. I’ll start with the version that takes the least amount of time.

this fast and easy way is sometimes not the best for lighter colored eyes (blue or green). I will be posting another tutorial soon that is better for light colored eyes so keep checking back or bookmark us and/or add us to your blogroll (we’ll return the favor).

open your picture in Photoshop.

select the dodge tool in your toolbar.

I usually set my dodge tool brush at around 50px depending on how close up the eyes are. You don’t want the brush to touch any of the eyelid, but you also don’t want it really tiny either. The range should be set at “highlights” and the exposure around 40%. Paint over the color and whites of the eyes. You won’t want to dodge the whites too much or it will look fake. for the colored part of the eye concentrate on dodging the catchlights.

Do all of this before you do any edits to your photo because using curves to make your image pop will also bring out the dodging you did to the eyes even more.

When you are finished with all your editing go to filter -> sharpen -> unsharpen mask. this is just a very subtle sharpen to make the eyes pop even more. Generally I use settings somewhere in this range (adjust to your liking):
amount: 27
radius: 3.7
threshold: 0

also if you don’t want to sharpen the whole image you can use the lasso tool to select the inside of one eye (the circle doesn’t have to be perfect) and sharpen it then select the inside of the other eye and sharpen it the same amount. When you use the lasso tool you have to be sure not to overdo your sharpening or there will be a noticeable line where your lasso was.

here is the final product and the original image side by side.