Quick Eye Retouching Tip for Removing Redness

Today's tip is a more basic tip aimed at newer retouchers, and is a common quick fix that I feel is necessary when your subject has red in their eyes. This is a 20-second fix which can be made even faster by turning it into an action and assigning a hot key shortcut.

Steps to Fix Red

We'll be working with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. 

First, go to "red" in the Hue/Saturation box and drag the saturation way down (to taste but it's best to overdo it a little bit, especially if you are making an action of it because you can always lower opacity) and increate the lightness like shown here:

Then click the layer mask icon (holding "alt" will create the mask black, which is what we want) or just invert the mask once created so that it's filled with black.

Then with a soft brush at a low opacity (15-20%) paint over the red in the eye and keep brushing until you achieve the desired amount of reduction in red. 

It is highly suggested to leave a tiny bit of red/pink in the corner of the eye, as that's natural for humans. If you have gone too far, simply lower the layer's opacity slowly until your natural look is achieved. As with all things retouching, be careful not to overdo it. 

Your end result should be somewhat subtle, but it makes a significant difference to reduce the redness. I use this as a quick method for retouching many images, volume events, etc. and it works well and quick. For a more detailed beauty shot, I might also heal/clone the red lines in the eyes and take a few more minutes on the eyes.

Final Result

In approxiamtely 15 seconds, here's our final result: