This image was taken in Viv’s studio with the only light coming from the window (behind me) and the patio doors (behind Viv). ISO 200, f/4.8, 1/15 sec. I increased the exposure by 1.5 stops in Lightroom 4 then converted it to tiff for further work in Photoshop 5.1
I selected her face using Topaz Remask 3 with refinements in Photoshop using a layer mask.. In this selection I increased the brightness to 53 and contrast to 7 – any further increase in contrast was detrimental, showing more smile lines.
The next selection was of the irises of her eyes. This was done using the magnetic selection tool. I increased the saturation by 36 and the brightness by 20 to give the following image. With any further increase in saturation, the eyes became unnaturally vivid.
As this stage has lightened her natural eye colouring, I feel that I’ve moved from enhancement to alteration. Maybe it’s because the eye colour is such a major part of a person’s makeup – I think more than the skin tone, as this changes through the seasons, whereas the eyes are constant.
Finally I changed her eye colour, using the same selection as that for the saturation / brightness, I increased the hue by 151, decreased the saturation by 40 and increased the lightness by 8. I then increased the contrast by 19, to bring back some definition between the irises and pupils.
I was pleased with the result of the changes, but I think I prefer the green eyes I’m used to – so does Viv. The image has now changed so significantly that it’s gone far past enhancement and I’m not comfortable with this amount of change, but that’s probably because I know her so well. If the image were of somebody else and they were happy with a change of eye colour then it would be a different matter.
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