Selecting the Irises

• Use the "Lasso Tool" to select the areas of both eyes, minus the pupil area.
  
  The easiest way to manipulate the color of the iris of the eyes in Photoshop is to use the "Curves" window. This window is useful because it allows the user to put in or take out as much cyan, magenta, yellow or black within a selected area as is desired.
  
  Open the photo to be manipulated in Photoshop and use the "Zoom Tool" (which looks like a magnifying glass at the bottom right corner of the Photoshop tool bar) to come in close to the eyes. Use the "Lasso Tool" (second tab down on the left column of the tool bar) to draw a shape around both irises. It is smart to manipulate the color of both eyes at once so the colors of both are uniform. Using the "Polygonal Lasso Tool" may be easier. Hold down the "Shift" key on the keyboard to select more than one area and hold down the "Alt" key to take away an area. Be sure to use the "Alt" key to remove the inner black pupils of both eyes from selection. To look natural, the pupils must stay their natural dark color.
  
  

Changing the Color

• The "Curves" window is an effective way to change the color of any selected object.
  
  Once both irises are selected, change the photo to CMYK mode by going under "Image," "Mode" and "CMYK Color." Hold down the "Ctrl" + "M" keys on the keyboard to bring up the "Curves" window. Change "Channel" to each individual color (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to control how much of each color is added or taken away from the existing eye color. Click in the middle of the graph under each color and bring the diagonal line up or down to add more or less of the selected color. Make sure the preview button is clicked on to see the immediate results. Hit "OK" when finished. Change the mode back to RGB if necessary.
  
  Once the picture is zoomed back out, slight imperfections with how the selection tool was initially drawn will probably not be noticeable.
  
  

Use of Manipulation

• While changing something like eye color is relatively simple in Photoshop, it is important that the manipulation of photos be used in good taste for proper situations. Heavy photo manipulation is frowned upon for most news publication purposes to avoid being called a dishonest or nonfactual news source. Generally speaking, photos placed in newspapers or news magazines should never be manipulated to the extent of changing someone's actual physical appearance. The integrity of a publication should not be called into question because of a manipulated photo.
  
  However, there are circumstances where changing eye color can come in handy. A large graphic zooming in on the eyes could be used as art accompanying a story on contact lenses. Manipulating the eye color in Photoshop to a more vibrant color would definitely be appropriate in this case.