sharpen tool, 20%ish opacity. apply carefully. building up to the effect you want.
I’ll remphasize something Dave said.
Be VERY careful when making any adjustments to photos of faces. People are extraordinarily aware of when something J.D.L.R. (just doesn’t look right) where faces are concerned. Subtlety is of paramount importance.
Tis true. Especially if it’s someone you know well and see on a regular basis.
Scottie,
Here’s a related technique. I say "related" because it is not "sharpening" necessarily but it can be used to make the eyes relatively prominent if not sharp, and it takes care of blotchy skin.
Put a duplicate of the image in a layer on top of it. Blur all of the top layer enough to get rid of blotches and other imperfections. Add a layer mask which, by default, will be white. Paint with a black, soft brush at full or partial opacity over the areas you do not want blurred—the eyes in your case, but other facial features, hair, and anything else. Optionally, you might prefer the inverse process—filling the mask with black to neuter it and then painting selected areas white to blur them, of course omitting the eyes, etc.
What seems to be a great example of this is the cover of "Parade" Magazine, Sunday, Feb 1 04. It has a stunning head and shoulders of Charlize Theron. She has gorgeous eyes to begin with but, as they are treated in that issue, embedded in the softest smoothest skin you would ever hope to create, they jump right out of the page. And the strands of hair retain all the details except at the outer edges which are deftly feathered. I would swear this is a Photoshop job.
George
Another thing to try, and you need to be real careful with this for the reasons phos explained above, I often lighten up the whites of the eyes to bring them out a little… very VERY lightly. A little dodge tool can be a lot here. Works nice.
"…Another thing to try…lighten up the whites of the eyes to bring them out a little…"
Also, enlarge the eyes…you can get away with scaling x and y 10% on a selected eye. Last year’s Epson Print Academy emcee advised that this is done in virtually all publications featuring models’ faces.
Dave:
Yes good idea. I was thinking about that, but have avoided sharpening tool in past because is so scorned in most Photoshop books in favor of USM. That sounds like great quick fix. What you think of the idea of selecting the eyes and then using USM as well?
George:
I’ll keep your technique on file for more complex jobs — bit more involved that most projects warrant. thanks!
Also another trick for "opening" up the eyes is to use the liquify tool with a brush as large as the eye set to bloat–one click usually does it.
What you think of the idea of selecting the eyes and then using USM as well?
I’m not an expert, but imo, it’s like using a hammer to drive a screw in. 🙂
Again, it’s very subjective, but be careful when messing with peoples faces if it’s going to be seen by someone who knows the subject. There are subtle cues that we pick up about our friends and close aquaintences and when you change them, even a little bit, the image can look "wrong" to a viewer who really knows the person, even if it looks like the best thing since sliced bread to you.
Trust the old (?) saying; "If you can tell something was done, it wasn’t done right" when retouching photographs. Of course there are obvious exceptions when you are asked to remove major blemishes and the like, but it is an excellent rule of thumb.
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For the work I do it works very well.
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Bill
