When retouching, lightening the sclera (the white of the eye) is a common adjustment. Just don’t overdo it (our eyes aren’t meant to glow … unless we’re in a sci-fi movie). What might look good at 1:1 in Photoshop or Lightroom can still be over baked when rendered as a small JPEG – you’ll learn to dial back the adjustments with experience.

A very simple adjustment is to brighten is very slightly and desaturate a little too (there are lots of different ways to do this, but a hue/saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop is an easy option). The key phrases being “very slightly” and “a little”.

Whatever you do, don’t paint them with white – that makes them appear literally flat and unnatural (contradicting the “ball” concept of “eyeball”). Over-brightening them to pure white will have the same effect.

This is just one of the topics we cover in our Portrait Retouching Workshop