Blood-Shot Eyes in Photoshop

Learn how to make a portrait subject's eyes look blood-shot using Photoshop. As usual, this tutorial was created using Adobe Photoshop Elements.

*For this tutorial you'll need two photos; one with a subject whose eyes you want to make look like they are red and blood-shot, and another of cracked ground or wall to be used for the texture of the red veins in the eye. The texture image should have varying cracks to make a realistic looking blood-shot eye.

Step 1. To create blood-shot eyes, we're going to create some red veins in the whites of the eyes. Open up both the eye photo and the cracked texture. Copy the texture on top of the eyes photo, making sure that it is on a separate layer. Working with the texture layer on top of the eyes, use the free transform tool to resize the layer to be as small as possible while covering one entire white section of one eye.

The thinner the cracks are, the more realistic the veins will look in the finished image. If you want the cracks to be smaller, duplicate the texture layer, flip one side, connect the two texture layers, and resize it again. Use the healing brush tool to blend the texture together.

Step 2. Desaturate the texture layer by going to Enhance> Adjust Color> Remove Color. Then set the Blending Mode of the cracked texture layer to Multiply.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 on the other side of the same eye. Make sure that the newer texture layer is set at a different angle or that you edit the cracks. We don't want the cracks to match on either side because wouldn't look real.

Step 3. Use the Liquify> Bloat Tool to give the texture layers a slight curvature so that the texture more closely matches the shape of the eye.

Step 4. Set both texture layers to invisible, and choose the background layer in Photoshop's Layers Palette. Use a selection tool (like the Magnetic Lasso) to select the white areas of the eye, feather by 3 or 4 pixels, and invert the selection. The part that is shown in red here is the section that is not selected.

Make the texture layers visible again, select one in the Layers Palette, and hit "delete". Repeat for the other layer.

Step 5. Use the Healing brush to blend some of the "veins" out of the texture layer, so that they appear to fade toward the iris. Select the textured area and define it as a brush by going to Edit> Define Brush From Selection. Then go into your Photoshop Paint Brush menu, select the texture brush, and set the color to red. I used Color Code #660000. Delete the previous texture layer, create a new layer and click the paint brush tool onto the new layer. Move it into place over the whites of the eye.