Adobe Photoshop CS6 Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks by Lynette Kent

Make the eyes come alive with a DIGITAL CATCHLIGHT
When the light source — whether it comes from a
camera flash, side lighting, or a natural light source
— reflects in the subject’s eyes, it forms a catchlight.
A catchlight, also called a specular highlight, in a
subject’s eyes adds life and sparkle to the subject and
brightens the overall photograph. More importantly, it
draws attention to the subject’s eyes and engages the
viewer.
If the subject in a photograph does not have any
specular highlights in the eyes or if the subject’s eyes
appear somewhat dull, you can use Photoshop to add
catchlights. The trick is to make them look real.
Jane Conner-ziser teaches this technique in her
classes and instructional videos. Jane creates
catchlights with diffused edges and emphasizes the
use of two separate layers, one for the glow and the
other for the sparkle of catchlights. By placing them
on separate layers, you can adjust the catchlights to
achieve a natural, realistic look.
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Note: Photograph copyright ©
Photospin.com.
1 Click the Zoom tool and zoom in
on the eye area.
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2 Click the Brush tool ( ).
3 Click the Brush Preset drop-down
menu and select a soft-edged
brush, with the Hardness slider
at 0%.
4 Click Opacity in the Options bar
and drag to the left to reduce the
brush opacity to 40%.
5 Press D to reset the foreground
and background colors.
6 Press X to reverse the colors,
making white the foreground
color.
7 Press the left or right bracket keys
to adjust the brush size to be
slightly larger than the final
catchlight.
8 Click the New Layer button to
add a new empty layer.
9 Click once in each eye to create
the catchlights.
0 Click the Brush Preset drop-down
menu to change to a hard-edged
brush.
! Click Opacity in the Options bar
and drag to the right to 100%.
@ Click the Layer Mask button to
add a layer mask.
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