52 Weeks of Photoshop: Week 1 - Eyes

So part of my 2019 goals is to better my photoshop abilities. While I feel confident with my abilities in lightroom, photoshop is a whole other ball park that I think could be really fun with my future creative concepts. So while I am also doing Project 52 - Pet Photography, I figured what a paw-fect time to do a photoshop challenge!

Our first week is eyes and I am already playing catch up - Classic Jade always running late. Ive always been able to enhance eyes in lightroom so I figured this would be an easy task, after watching a 20 minute tutorial I simply didn't have the patience to find another tutorial I liked better so I gave it a go.

Before - Lightroom Edit

After - Photoshop Eyes

I basically created this 'enhanced eye' by using masking layers and adjusting the curves. I zoomed in and drew additional lines around the pupil and then changed the brightness and the colours. I was pretty happy with the results once I had finished and felt while it was clearly altered it looked relatively normal.... The more I look at this image the more it kind of... terrifies me? Perhaps because its just not a suitable technique, perhaps because its the wrong colour and needs to be darker, perhaps because I know my own baby so well that looking at this altered image of her is screaming at me to make it more 'normal'

I have to wonder if I would feel the same if the alterations were made to an image of a dog I didn't know? Perhaps I needed to find a better tutorial or a new technique. Maybe I just needed to be more patient and take more time on it. I certainly don't think I did this with enough finesse to make it unnoticeable if this were to be blown up on a print..

For really having no idea when it comes to the photoshop side of things, I feel pretty good about how I will progress towards the end of the year. I certainly learnt a few things this week.

~ Lilakian ~

Let me know your thoughts! Does this look too fake if you hadn't seen an alternative image? Does this do the theme justice? if your a photoshopper yourself, whats your favourite eye editing tutorial?