Brighten eyes selectively

The pass changes luminance and retains the pixel’s existing chroma. That keeps a brown iris brown and a blue iris blue while opening its darker values gently. The soft circle is deliberately small because lifting eyelids and surrounding skin makes an eye look pasted on long before the slider reaches its cap.

Selective eye pass

Amount

20–35%

Brush

One short pass per iris or eye white

Catchlight

Left as recorded

Output

Full-resolution JPG at 95

• This is not an eye-colour replacement and does not invent catchlights.
• A blurred or closed eye does not gain detail when it is brightened.
• Paint the iris and visible white, not the whole socket; the tool cannot identify an eyelid from the brush alone.

• Whiten teethA local painted pass gated to brighter, quieter colour so lips and mouth shadow resist it.
• Flash red-eyeLooks for red pupils as soon as a picture opens, in the eyes it found, and asks first.
• Skin smoothingOpens with the skin layer at 25 per cent, which leaves three-quarters of the texture.
• How far is too farWhere the caps sit, why they are there, and what the distance readout is measuring.