How To Remove Red Eye in Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements includes a special red-eye brush tool, but you may find it doesn't always give the best results. This is a very easy method that works in nearly all situations.

Time Required: 2-3 minutes

Here's How:

1. Open the photo.
2. Go to View > New View to open a duplicate window.
3. Zoom in on one window so you can see the eyes and arrange the Windows you can see both the zoomed in view and the actual size view.
4. If the layers palette is not visible, display it by going to Window > Show Layers.
5. Click the "create a new layer" button at the bottom of the layers palette.
6. At the top of the layers palette, use the blending mode menu to change this new layer's blending mode to Color.
7. Click the foreground color swatch in the tool box and select the replacement eye color.
8. Select the paintbrush tool.
9. In the options bar, choose a soft-edged brush, slightly smaller than the red eye area. Click on opacity and set it low, to about 30%.
10. Gradually paint over the red area in the eyes, being careful not to paint over the white of the eyes or the skin around the eyes. Zoom in closer if you need more control.

Tips:

1. Because we use a low opacity brush, you will probably need to build up the color in several passes. Every time you release and press the mouse button, you will build up more color.
2. If you overdo it, you can use the opacity slider on the layer palette to reduce the color.
3. If you accidentally paint outside of the iris area, it's easy to clean up because you're on a separate layer. Just use the eraser tool to remove any stray color, or trash the layer and try again.
4. When you're happy with the results you can merge the layer down or flatten the image from the Layer menu.