Enhancing eyes in Lightroom

[onearmivan]

Hello,

Hope it's not too much from me to ask two question in such a short period of time. I apologize if it is.

I just started learning Lightroom 2.xx and find it hard to figure out how to properly use "Adjustment Brush".

I read a wonderful article/tutorial about "Fixing Animal Eyes" in Lightroom here on the site, but am not quite sure how to apply what I learned/read there.

It says in the article: "Click the Adjustment Brush in the top of the Develop module panel and size the brush so that it is the right size to work on the animal’s eye. Click once on the eye and then paint over the area that you want to affect. If you can’t see your paint and want to see it, press the O button to enabled and disable the ruby overlay..."

That's all ok, but what is the point of clicking on the eye with the right size brush when I can "paint" anywhere I want on a photo and there is no limitations as to how much? Am I missing something? I also don't know how to do any editing on the pupil, cause it seems that brush only effects the iris?
Small white circle appears at the spot where I click with the brush and it just stays there - lol. Not sure what is the purpose of it if I still have to be careful to pain only the circle that is the eye and I can't start doing it from the spot I marked cause it's that white circle there and I have to start somewhere around it before it disappears - lol ?

And sometimes there is this red pain where I'm painting and sometimes it's the color I chose. Not sure why there isn't consistency in it. I'm probably doing something wrong.

Would someone explain to me (step-by-step) how to enhance/fix the eyes, both on animals or - what is more important to me - or humans ?
I surmise that the procedure is the same with human eyes, right? Or there are some other tricks I should be aware of ?

Thanks a lot and I'm sorry if the post is too long and for my bad English.

[acedrew]

The small white spot you are referring to is a pushpin to denote the spot where you have started an edit. The adjustment brush is simply a way of creating masks to edit you images with. The red you refer to is simply Adobe's way of telling you which part of the image you have selected to edit. I would start with a bump of about a .5 stop of exposure, to brighten the eyes, a little bump up on the clarity slider will give them a little pop as well. For more extreme edits, you can use the saturation and color to really make things pop. If you do not see any sliders, click the little switch just to the right of the "Effect" list. I would choose the Exposure effect to start from and then move the sliders to get the effect you want. You want to be zoomed all the way in when you're doing this as well.

That should get you started in the right direction.

Andrew Rodgers
Perfected Perspectives -- Photography by Andrew Rodgers | Andrew Rodgers (acedrew) on Twitter

[onearmivan]

Thank you very much for the answer, acedrew. I guess I didn't zoomed in enough to see the results while I was painting.

When it comes to the "pushpin" (white circle, rather than just a spot) I dont see the purpose of it, since like I tried to explain, I can paint/edit anywhere on the photographs no matter where that small white circle is, except inside of it - lol.
Same goes with the red surface/paint - sometimes I can see it, sometimes I can't. And also, I can paint and see it anywhere on the photo no matter where I started to edit (pushpin circle)?

Thanks!

[agresbach]

CoffeeShop Free PS/PSE Actions!: CoffeeShop LightRoom 2 "Eye Pop" Tutorial!


is this what you're looking for?

[onearmivan]

Originally Posted by agresbach

CoffeeShop Free PS/PSE Actions!: CoffeeShop LightRoom 2 "Eye Pop" Tutorial!


is this what you're looking for?

Definitely looks like it is. Thanks for the link, agresbach.

Thanks guys for the help!!

[agresbach]

Originally Posted by onearmivan

Definitely looks like it is. Thanks for the link, agresbach.

Thanks guys for the help!!

you're welcome! have fun! one thing with that is to pay close attention to not over do it . key is to enhance but only far enough that it still looks natural. practice

[amymnc]

This is perfect! I had only been using the "exposure" option and didn't even realize you could click on the masking part. Duh.
Learning something here already! Thank you!

[onearmivan]

Originally Posted by agresbach

you're welcome! have fun! one thing with that is to pay close attention to not over do it . key is to enhance but only far enough that it still looks natural. practice

Heh, yeah... It's hard to stop playing with it once you have started - lol. Thanks again for the great link.

Thanks all!!

[agresbach]

you're welcome! that site has some really cool lightroom and photoshop filters/actions and tutorials so look around! good luck!