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Presented
on 22 February 2006
A
common problem with photos, especially group pictures,
is a person who closed his/her eyes at the moment that
the photograph was taken. Murphy's Law states that the
group photo in which everyone was smiling, in good light
and clearly visible will have one person with his/her eyes
closed. Fortunately, Fireworks makes this problem easy
to correct.
Depending
on what you have to work with, there are three or four
steps:
- Take a lot of photos!
You need to take several photos, in order to have material
to work with to fix the problem. You need at least one
good picture of the person in question -- maybe in
a photo in which something else wasn't right -- to
fix the eyes. The eyes-open
photo and the eyes-closed
photo should have the same light levels, with the light
coming from the same direction, at the same distance
from the camera, and at the same magnification. If
you have an eyes-closed picture that was taken in the
shade, and an eyes-open picture taken in full sun,
it will be much more difficult to make the change.
Take several photos of each arrangement
of people, location, etc. If people change positions,
take several more shots before they move again. With
a digital camera, there is no excuse for not taking an
adequate number of shots.
- Copy
a "good" eye from another photo.
 Open
a photo with an open eye or eyes in Fireworks.
Use the Oval Marquee Tool  (click
and hold for a moment on the Marquee Tool  ,
then choose the Oval Marquee Tool) to draw an oval around
an open eye. If you don't like the position of the oval,
you can move it around with the Pointer Tool  .
From the
menu at the top of the screen, select
Edit > Copy.
| Hint: |
It
may be easier to position the Oval Marquee if you
zoom in on the eye with the Zoom Tool  . |
- Paste
the eye onto the photo with the closed eye, and move it
into position.
 From the menu
at the top of the screen, select Edit > Paste.
Position the eye with the Pointer Tool (you can use your
keyboard's arrow keys for fine movements).
If there is a noticeable "edge" around the new eye, go
to Step 4 to learn how to blend the edges of the two images.
- If necessary, "smudge" the edges of the oval to blend-in the new eye.
 This
example shows a slight line around the new eye, especially
on the upper-right part of the oval.
In order to blend the eye and the rest of the face, you have
to be able to work on both the new eye and the image it
sits on at the same. In the Layers Panel on the right side
of the screen, click one of the layers, then hold down
the [Shift] and select the other layer. See the example below and to
the right.
From the
menu at the top of the screen, select Modify >
Flatten Selection.
 Use
the Smudge Tool  (click
and hold for a moment on the Blur Tool  ,
then choose the Smudge Tool) to very gently soften the edges of
the new eye. You may need to change the size of the tool
in the Properties. I find that a Size of about 10 and an Edge of 50 work
well.
| Hint: |
Use the Zoom Tool to enlarge the image
while working on the edges of the new eye |
That's it! Now do the other eye!
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