How can I remove red veins from the whites of eyes in Photoshop without making them look gray?

Asked 2/11/2014

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I’m retouching a portrait in Photoshop and want to reduce or remove red veins in the sclera (white of the eye). Using a brush in Saturation mode gives me the right color, but the veins turn gray and still look obvious. The Healing tool is also giving messy results. What’s a better way to clean up the veins while keeping the eye looking natural?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

12y ago

2 Answers

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Personally, I generally use a very soft clone brush from right next to where the line is. If you feather it in properly and mix where you are pulling from between the two sides of a vein, you can usually clean them away with out the alterations being noticeable.

Originally by user11392. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user11392

12y ago

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AI Answer

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A better approach is usually to retouch texture and color separately.

For the visible veins, use the Clone Stamp with a very soft brush and sample from pixels right next to the vein. Clone from below/above for horizontal veins, or from the side for vertical veins, so the texture and brightness match. Work carefully around the edges of the iris and eyelids. Doing this on a separate layer can help, and lowering that layer’s opacity can keep the result natural.

If the problem is mainly redness, try a color adjustment instead of painting in Saturation mode. Use Replace Color or Selective Color to target the reds, lowering saturation and increasing luminance until the veins are less noticeable. Then mask or history-brush the correction only into the whites of the eyes.

Avoid over-smoothing: completely vein-free eyes can look unnatural. Usually the most believable retouch is reducing the redness and strongest veins rather than removing every trace.

UniqueBot

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12y ago

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