Lotus is fun, as this photo shows. Went a little crazy with the Totally Rad Actions, using both Bullet Tooth and some texture--after all, when else do I get to use texture?!

Ok, the title is cheesy, I almost take it back.  I’ve come across a few interesting articles lately on editing eyes in portraits using photoshop.  With just a tiny bit of work, the changes are just eye-popping.  Sorry!  I can’t help myself.

Here is a before and after photo of my handsome husband looking into the mirror.

Image went from soft and a little tired to rugged and little bad ass =)

I’ll only go through the steps that I used on the eyes, but if you’re interested in checking out what other steps I take in portraits, you can check this out here. These portraits were taken in a hotel bathroom, after a few rounds of beer and gummy bear – jolly rancher poker when I realized I had (had!) to get some portraits of people capturing the amazing catchlights created by the rectangular light outlined bathroom mirror.

First, use the dodge tool (14 icons down on the toolbar on the left, click on it, select the black lollipop) and take a pass over the entire eye.  If you still can’t tell the difference between the pupil and the iris, take another pass with the dodge tool over the iris.  If there is a bit of redness in the whites of her eyes, use the patch tool (7 icons down on the left, click on it, then select the patch tool), select the redness, and drag over to a whiter part of the eye.

Then darken the pupil of the eye using the burn tool (14 icons down, click on it, select the hand making an o).

Finally, and this is the tip that just really creates the magic, use the burn tool, using a very small sized brush, size 17, to darken just the rim of the iris.  In the picture below, I’ve only rimmed the iris halfway on the left side to demonstrate–it’s very subtle.

Here is the final before and after. While the changes were really small and subtle, the difference is pretty huge.

Here are two other great articles on retouching eyes. One from the fantastic photographer Lawrence Kim is here, and another one from CoffeeShop, which has tons of free photshop and photoshop elements actions is here, and focuses on making brown eyes pop.