Remove Redeye+
In Brief
To remove redeye from a picture:
Right click the image for the ,
then select
Move the mouse to one corner of the affected area,
press and hold the left mouse button, drag an ellipse roughly over the
area, and release the mouse button.
Use the magnified view that pops up when you release
the mouse to refine the designated area. To resize the ellipse, position
the mouse over any edge, then hold the left button while dragging it.
To reposition the ellipse, hold down the
key and position the mouse on the ellipse, then hold the left button while
dragging it.
Click .
Note 1: While the redeye processing
window has many settings, basic redeye removal is best accomplished with
the default settings: set
to and set to .
Note 2: If an image has redeye
removal processing, the selection
on the
will be checked. When the mouse passes over an area designated for redeye
processing, Easel outlines it. Right click on the outlined area for a
popup menu with choices to remove or modify the processing.
In Depth
Every photographer is familiar with redeye, the ghoulish distortion
caused by light from the flash reflecting off blood in the eyes. Just
about every camera has some sort of red eye reduction feature these days,
but it still happens, and so just about every digital image editor has
tools to fix it. Easel
is no exception, and there's a lot of thought and experimentation behind
its redeye removal capabilities. There's also capability for dealing with
other sorts of reflective distortion, hence "redeye+." Some
of this is overkill, but the basic method for removing redeye is effective,
easy to use, and very precise.
Removing redeye is straightforward, technically speaking, but the problem
with most editors is that it can be hard to designate exactly the area
in which to do so, and imprecision introduces new distortion. Hence redeye
reduction in Easel works in two steps: first, you drag an ellipse roughly
over the area to be processed; then a magnified version of the area pops
up in which you can fine tune and preview the area.
While working on redeye processing, it occurred to me that redeye was
only the most common type of distortion caused by reflection and that,
since I was adding the capability to designate parts of an image and process
them independently, perhaps I could give Easel the ability to deal with
other types of "reflective distortions" as well. I can't say
that any of what I came up with is breathtaking, but there may be circumstances
in which you find some of it useful. For what it's worth, you won't find
it in other image editors.
Reduce Red/Green/Blue
Because of the ,
it is very easy to reduce or remove only the red from part of an image;
all you do is adjust the number representing red in each
in the designated area. It's equally easy to do the same for green and
blue; are there any instances where this might be handy? While working
on redeye, I solicted examples from friends, and received cases of both
greeneye (in cats) and blueeye (in dogs). The green wasn't pure enough
for removing green to do much, but removing the blue worked pretty well.
Reduce Selected Color Range
Easel can also reduce a user-specified range of colors, useful when
the distortion is not a pure color (which is most often the case). When
this method is selected, you need to perform the additional step of designating
the color range. After clicking to close
the window, you will be prompted to drag an ellipse over the area containing
the color range: most often, you will want to select the distorted area.
To change the range, right click the processing area, select edit, click
, and drag it again.
Note: Preview is not available
with this setting.
Reduction Method: Minimize vs. Darken
Whenever you chose one of the above
methods, you will also have a choice for , the technique used to modify the color values. With red,
green or blue, sets the selected
color to equal the lowest of the three values, while with a color range,
reduces all colors in proportion
to their prevalence in the range. WIth ,
the selected color or colors in the range are reduced by the percentage
set in the control.
generally works better, but if you are not getting satisfactory results,
click and see what it looks like.
Reduce Glare
Glare, when the flash reflects off of a shiny surface,
is probably the next most common reflection problem after redeye. It's
just about impossible to fix because there's nothing left to recover --
the pixels are pretty much white. I made a stab at it that can help a
little bit when the area is small, as with eyeglasses. To use it, you
need to designate the processing area so that it starts on the left and
ends on the right OUTSIDE of the glare, because it works by scanning horizontally
to detect where the glare begins and ends, and shades the glare with colors
sampled from the unaffected area. It works in conjunction with the setting, and tends not to do much
until this approaches 100%. It's not great, but it can reduce the visual
distraction caused by small areas of glare.
Darken by %
The intensity of all color values in the designated area are reduced
by the setting.
Fill with Palette Color
All color values in the designated area are replaced with the color
you select by clicking the button.
Not a subtle effect.
Fill with Sampled Colors
All color values in the designated area are replaced with colors selected
randomly from within another part of the image. When this method is selected,
you need to perform the additional step of designating the area from which
to pick colors. After clicking to close
the window, you will be prompted to drag an ellipse over the area.
Copy From Elsewhere
The processing area will be filled in with a copy of another portion
of the image. When this method is selected, you need to perform the additional
step of designating the area from which to copy. After clicking to close the window, you will be prompted to
click in the center of the area to copy.
Although strange, this can be a surprisingly effective
way to deal with one bad eye when you've still got a good one (an eye
for an eye?). In the example, the subject's right eye was completely glared
out by the flash, in a way that none of the above techniques did much
good. However, there was a perfectly good left eye inches away. When I
selected this setting and clicked in the middle of the good eye, the fix
was nearly perfect (it still looks good blown up to a much larger size
than shown).
You can also use this method for a variety of special effects having
nothing to do with reflective distortions: creating insets, giving someone
a third eye in the middle of their forehead, etc. Go wild.