How to FREAK People Out in Photoshop

Learn how to Black Out Eyes and FREAK People Out in Photoshop!

In this tutorial, follow along during our photoshoot where we pour black liquid on Aaron’s head, then take the image into Photoshop for finishing touches.

Get the Proper Lighting to Black Out Eyes

The key to making a black eye ball look believable in Photoshop is lighting. Be sure your subject is facing a large window or other lighting source that will create light reflections in their eyes.

If there is no reflection in the person’s eye, the effect will look flat and life-less.

Quick Tip: Be sure to photograph your subject facing a window so there is a visible reflection in their eye.

How to Black-Out Eyes in Photoshop

After bringing your image into Photoshop, grab the Brush Tool by pressing B. Choose a small round brush with a medium-soft edge and on a new layer, paint over the entire eye. Be sure to feather the edge where the eyeball meets the inner “pink” parts of the eye.

If needed, blur the layer to make it blend into the outer part of the eye.

For added realism, crete a Curves Adjustment Layer and bring it darker, then mask it in right around the black eye. This will make it look like the eye lid is reflecting black, not white.

How to Copy the Original Reflection

To make this effect look real, there must be a reflection in the eye. Turn off the black layer, revealing the original eye below. Navigate to “Select > Color Range” and use the eye dropper to click on the lightest part of the reflection.

Now the highlight is selected. Create a new layer and choose white as your foreground color. Next, paint white over the reflection selection.

Now you will have one layer with black covering the eye and another layer with the original reflection copied. Make sure to place the reflection layer above the black layer.

Additional Editing

To finish the image, we use a Levels Adjustment Layer and choose the background with the “White Point Eye Dropper” to make the background completely white.

Next we use the Brush Tool to paint over the seam in the backdrop.

To make the image look a bit more creepy, we add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and lower the saturation of the entire image.

This image is sure to freak out your friends and family!