We receive many requests asking how to produce this or that effect with Picnik. Today a guest user asked how to change a subject’s eye color. They didn’t leave an email address so I’ll post the reply here and maybe they’ll read it. In any case I’m sure this technique is new to many of you.

Before…

After!

The key to changing eye color, hair color, or the color of any part of a photo is what we call “Effect Painting”. Effect Painting lets you paint an effect, be it tint, black & white, soften, pixelate and others, anywhere you want it. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Create tab and under Effects select Tint, in the Color section.
2. If it’s not already selected, click the paint brush icon.
3. In the window that pops up, click the “Reverse Effect” checkbox.
4. Now, paint directly on the photo wherever you want to apply the tint. You might want to increase or decrease the brush size.
5. If you accidentally paint too much, click the “Original” button and paint back the original. You can hold the Alt key down as a shortcut to switch between effect and original painting.
6. When you’re done painting play around with the Tint Color selector at the left. The effect will change immediately as you try new colors. Sooo much fun!
7. The Advanced Modes and Fade slider can be used to mix the tint back into the original in interesting ways.

That’s it. Have fun!

(Original image courtesy of Peter Klashorst under Creative Commons license)

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 12:23 am and is filed under picnik. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.