brilliant, vibrant eyes.

[cailinp]

One thing I love about portraits is when the end result has such vibrant eye color and eye white color. I use LR2 and have been playing around with this and can't seem to achieve it like some of the "pros" around here. I just want the eyes in my photos to be brilliant. Any advice? TIA.

 

[pbelarge]

Do you place your focal point directly on the eyes?

Distance, focal point, maybe manual focusing, lighting, lighting, lighting

 

[tsaraleksi]

A little localized curves + sharpening can help a lot to bring out the eyes.

 

[KmH]

Those kinds of edits are usually done in Photoshop, rather than in Lightroom.

Lightroom is very handy for doing quick global edits on a lot of images. It's not very good at doing precise selections for targeted local edits.

There are many, many things that just can't be done in Lightroom.

Many of us use both Lightroom and Photoshop for those reasons.

 

[reznap]

A little localized curves + sharpening can help a lot to bring out the eyes.

This. A lot of this is done by zooming in and carefully dodging and saturating I think. I think it adds a nice touch but shouldn't be overdone to where it looks too unnatural.

 

[tsaraleksi]

You can go a long way to getting it naturally with fairly strong contrasty light that is directed right into the eyes.

 

[myfotoguy]

For brigthening in post processing...

If you have Photoshop here is a technique.
If you are using PS Elements, this site has free actions/presets (for Photoshop too by the way). Scroll down to retouching and you will see PowederRoom2 and Eye Bright.

 

[g-fi]

The lasso tool and judicious use of unsharp mask (in Photoshop). You can also play with the contrast. There are several free photoshop actions that can simplify this process, but if you don't start with in-focus eyes, you've lost the biggest tool you've got. IME, Lightroom can't really do the fine tuning that you need to get the result you want with just the eyes. LR is a WONDERFUL program, but there's just a lot that you can't do with it.

 

[g-fi]

Also to add, Coffee Shop's free PS actions include a Portrait action that includes eye sharpening, eye white brightening, teeth whitening, skin smoothing, etc.

CoffeeShop Free PS/PSE Actions!

 

[KmH]

See what I mean. Lots of Photoshop techniques are being posted, not Lightroom techniques.

You can dodge and burn in Lightroom, sort of, using the Adjustment Brush.

Lightroom just doesn't have any precise selection tools, or layers like Photoshop does.

You might want to get the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. (pages 180-181 for portrait retouching)

 

[Foques]

You can go a long way to getting it naturally with fairly strong contrasty light that is directed right into the eyes.

this.
:thumbup:

 

[KmH]

You can go a long way to getting it naturally with fairly strong contrasty light that is directed right into the eyes.

this.
:thumbup:

 

[cailinp]

Thanks all. I think I need to look into ps a bit. Any recommendations as to which one?

 

[KmH]

Thanks all. I think I need to look into ps a bit. Any recommendations as to which one?

You have 3 choices:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 ($80 USD or so) which is the de-featured consumer version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 ($699 USD), the current professional version of Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended ($999 USD) which has all of the above plus 3-D and scientific capabilities.

 

[JasonLambert]

If you are also looking for a nice retouching tool to go along with lightroom (works with photoshop also) check out Portraiture. It's great for touching up skin but leaving the rest of the image alone.

The down side is that it is just a plug-in and needs LR or PS to work.