How to Brighten Eyes in Photoshop and Make Them Sparkle

Written by Steve Patterson.

In this tutorial, I show you how to brighten someone’s eyes in Photoshop and make them sparkle to help your portraits look more engaging. We’ll use a classic Photoshop technique for brightening eyes that’s not only quick but also simple enough for even beginners to use.

Download the PDF: How to Brighten Eyes and Make Them Sparkle

Here’s a closeup of my subject’s eyes before brightening them. I'm using this image from Adobe Stock.

The original eyes.

And here’s how the eyes will look after the brightening is added.

The subject's eyes after brightening them in Photoshop.

The eyes after brightening them in Photoshop.

Which Photoshop version do I need?

I'm using Photoshop 2024 but any recent version will work.

Let's get started!

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Step 1: Add a new layer

Start by going to Photoshop's Layers panel and clicking the Add New Layer icon.

Clicking the Add New Layer icon in the Layers panel.

Adding a new layer.

Photoshop adds a new blank layer above your image.

By default the new layer is named Layer 1 but I’ve renamed it Eyes.

The new layer above the image.

Step 2: Select the Brush Tool

In Photoshop’s toolbar, select the Brush Tool.

Selecting the Brush Tool.

Step 3: Choose the Soft Round brush

With the Brush Tool active, right-click anywhere on your image to open the Brush Preset Picker.

Then select the Soft Round brush. In newer versions of Photoshop, the Soft Round brush is found in the General Brushes category.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to close the Brush Preset Picker.

Choosing the Soft Round brush.

Photoshop's Brush Tool is now fixed!

Step 4: Set your brush color to white

Make sure your Foreground color (which is also the brush color) is set to white.

If it’s set to a different color, press the letter D on your keyboard to reset the Foreground and Background colors to their defaults (black for the Foreground and white for the Background). Then press X on your keyboard to swap them.

The current Foreground and Background colors are shown in the color swatches in the toolbar. The Foreground color is the upper left swatch and should now be white.

The Foreground color set to white.

Step 5: Resize the brush

We can brighten both eyes at once on the same layer.

Start with the left eye. Use the left and right bracket keys ( [ and ] ) on your keyboard to resize your brush cursor so that it’s slightly smaller than the iris (the color part of the eye that we want to brighten).

Making the brush cursor slightly smaller than the iris.

Step 6: Click once on each iris

Then click once in the lower right of the iris to add a big white blob.

Clicking to add white to the iris in the left eye.

Do the same thing with the right eye using the same brush size, clicking once in the lower right of the iris to add the same white blob in the same spot.

Adding the same area of white to the right eye.

Step 7: Add a smaller area of white on the opposite sides

Press the right bracket key ( ] ) on your keyboard two or three times to make the brush cursor a bit smaller.

Then click once in the upper left of the iris in each eye to add a second smaller white blob on the opposite side. Don’t worry, it will look better in a moment.

Adding a smaller area of white in the upper left of each iris.

Step 8: Add a layer mask

Back in the Layers panel, with the eyes layer selected, click the Add Layer Mask icon.

Adding a layer mask.

A layer mask thumbnail appears on the eyes layer.

The layer mask is added.

Step 9: Set the Foreground color to black

The layer mask will be used to hide the white blobs in the pupils and the areas surrounding each iris, which means we need to paint on the layer mask with black.

Make sure your Foreground color is set to black. If it’s set to white, press X on your keyboard to swap the Foreground and Background colors.

Setting the Foreground color to black.

Step 10: Hide the white from the pupils and surrounding areas

Again we’ll start with the left eye. Press the right bracket key ( ] ) on your keyboard to make the brush smaller until it is the same size as the pupil.

Making the brush the same size as the pupil in the left eye.

Then click once in the center of the pupil to hide the white (by painting with black on the layer mask).

Hiding the white from inside the pupil in the left eye.

Do the same thing for the right eye, clicking once in the center of the pupil to hide the white.

Hiding the white from inside the pupil in the right eye.

Then paint carefully around the outer edges of each iris to hide the white from the surrounding areas. Make sure to paint over the eyelashes as well.

Here I’m painting with black around the left iris to hide the white.

Painting to hide the white from around the iris in the left eye.

And here I’m doing the same thing for the right iris. The white in each eye should now be visible only in the iris itself.

Painting to hide the white from around the iris in the right eye.

Step 11: Change the layer blend mode to Overlay

Finally back in the Layers panel, change the blend mode of the eyes layer from Normal to Overlay.

Changing the layer blend mode to Overlay.

The areas in each eye where we painted with white now appear brighter, adding a nice sparkle.

The eyes are now brighter after changing the blend mode.

If the brightening is too much, simply lower the opacity for the eyes layer to fine-tune the result.

Lower the opacity to reduce the brightening if needed.

And there we have it! That’s how easy it is to brighten and add sparkle to eyes in Photoshop.

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