Getting Rid of Red Eye in a Digital Photo

The Red Eye Removal tool in Photoshop Elements allows you to click or paint away those glowing pupils that affect pets, children, or anyone else wide-eyed and close enough to the camera and its overzealous flash. Photoshop Elements isn't the only image editor that has this feature - check your software manual to see if you can use your program to remove the nasty red eye.
To use the Red Eye Removal tool, you have to use the Options bar (which you can see in Figure 1). If you want to use the Red Eye Removal tool, follow these steps to customize the tool's effects and apply them to the glowing eyes in question:

Figure 1: The Options bar in the Red Eye Removal tool.
1. Check to see that the layer with the demonic-looking eyes is, in fact, the active layer in the Layers palette.
2. Click the Red Eye Removal tool in the Tool palette to activate it and consider the following options:
• Pupil Size: This measurement is the size of the brush that you use to paint over the red-eye.
Darken Amount: This option is the degree that you want to darken the red eyes.
3. Click in the area of the image that includes the red-eye effect.
The tool automatically seeks out the red tone and darkens it, creating more natural-looking eyes.
4. If both eyes are glowing (they usually are), you can repeat Step 3 for the second eye.

Photoshop Elements 3.0's brand-new Red Eye Removal tool doesn't work with the similar yellow or green eye effect produced in animals. Try using the Color Replacement tool instead. For best results, don't apply the same exact pupil color to both eyes. Usually, the lighting on the individual eyes is slightly different, which affects both the glow that you're trying to get rid of and the pupil color that you want. If you apply too dark or too large a pupil, the results look fake.