# Best way to remove "Pet Eye" (green/gold/white) in photoshop?



## guitarlp

Hey everyone,

I took a bunch of pictures this weekend and most of my dog pictures turned out with "pet eye." I've searched online for various ways to remove it using photoshop but nothing seems to be working as well as I'd like.

The best I've been a been able to come up with is using the magic wond to select the entire pupil and then apply hue/saturation to that area... I use that to make the color grey and then adjust the brightness to make it nearly black. If needed I use a 3-4 pixel paint brush in white to add that little flash light back to the pupil.

This is the best technique I've found out of all the guides out there... but I'd like something to look better.

Does anyone have a technique that works "best" for the them?


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## Sideburns

I just wanna ask whether you know how to avoid this for the future?
A speedlite or natural light will not give your pets funny coloured eyes.

I think last time I needed to do this, I just used the red-eye fixer tool cause I was lazy.


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## Dagwood56

My dogs eyes always turn blue. What I usually do is select a brush that just fits the blue area, then I airbrush in black and add the white flash dot. This is how the most recent turned out. 

Before:










After:


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## ticktock01

Guitarlp, I use basically the same method you use.  Except I only desaturate the necessary colors.  If Red eye, I desaturate red and magenta.  If green eye, I desaturate green, yellow and cyan.  I rarely have to replace the catchlight that way.  I find I get a very realistic fix.


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## guitarlp

ticktock01 said:


> Guitarlp, I use basically the same method you use.  Except I only desaturate the necessary colors.  If Red eye, I desaturate red and magenta.  If green eye, I desaturate green, yellow and cyan.  I rarely have to replace the catchlight that way.  I find I get a very realistic fix.



I tried that but blue eyes have more then just blue I need to desaturated.

Your way seems to work pretty good... but there is usually still a hint of color around the pupil and on top of that there's usually a dark ring around the outside of the pupil I really don't like.

The best I've come up with is this.

I use the sponge to de-saturate the pupil. Then I'll create a new layer and I'll draw in (with a brush using black) a new pupil. I'll create a new layer, select white, and try to copy the flash from the original shot on the pupil. I now go back to my painted pupil and change the opacity to make it look more natural. I also apply some blurring to this layer as well so my pupil blends better with the eye.

That's pretty much the best I've come up with thus far. Your way / my original way makes a ring around the outside of the pupil and a small amount of color is still shown which a turn off for me. My new way looks pretty good. Not perfect... but it's the closest I can come up with.
Here's the original:






Here's my edit using the first fix I mentioned but creates that ring I don't like:






And here's the best I've been able to come up with using my method mentioned above:


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## guitarlp

Dagwood56 said:


> My dogs eyes always turn blue. What I usually do is select a brush that just fits the blue area, then I airbrush in black and add the white flash dot. This is how the most recent turned out.
> 
> Before:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> After:



I'm doing pretty much the same as you...except I'm doing a few more steps to make the pupil seem a little more natural.

Btw... your flashes on the pupils above don't match up. The left eye your flash is too far to the left... and on the right eye it's too far to the right. It helps if you created your new pupils on a new layer... then make their opacity something like 20% so you can see the original flash, create a new layer and try to paint the same flash spot in that part of the eye. Then raise your opacity for the pupil again and the flash should be in the correct spot.


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## guitarlp

Sideburns said:


> I just wanna ask whether you know how to avoid this for the future?
> A speedlite or natural light will not give your pets funny coloured eyes.
> 
> I think last time I needed to do this, I just used the red-eye fixer tool cause I was lazy.



Yep... I know how to avoid it. The flash needs to be further away from the lens.

The red eye tool won't work because it only corrects red values. It doesn't even effect the blue or gold color of animal eyes if you try and use it.


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