Separating Color Channels To Fix Red-Eye

This tutorial uses the photo of the two small children with bad red-eye that was included as a tutorial image with Paint Shop Pro 7.  That image belongs to Jasc, so it is not posted here for downloading.  This method will only work with RED eyes - animal eyes that glow other colors (like the dog in the PSP 7 tutorial image) probably cannot be repaired using this method.  You can try painting the pupil black in all four channels and then recombining them, but this will probably not look very good.

1.  Load the image with the red-eye and go to Color > Channel Splitting (Split Channel in PSP 7) > Split to RGB.  Users of PSP 4 go to Image > Channels > Splitting.  This will generate three greyscale images - one each for the red, green, and blue information in the photo.  The lighter the grays in an RGB color channel, the more of that color comes through.  In this photo, for example, there are a lot of reds, but not nearly as many greens and even fewer blues.  As you can see, the bright red eyes come from the red channel.  Remember to keep ALL THREE channels open through the whole procedure (you can minimize the ones you don't need) - you will be recombining all of them at the end.  (screenshot from PSP 4)

2.  Since the red channel is causing the problem, we need to copy "good" information from one of the other two channels over the "bad" information in the red channel.  I compared the blue channel and the green channel to see which eyes would be better to use as a source.  I chose the green channel to copy from because the blue channel looked a bit dark and grainy by comparison.

3.  Select one of the eyes so that you have at least a whole pupil.  This photo is unusual in that the baby's eyes are very nearly circular.  This allows you to use a circular or elliptical selection with this photo if you choose.  With other photos, you might have to use freehand or point-to-point selections.  Users of PSP 4 will probably want to use the lasso tool anyway as it is very difficult to line up a circular selection exactly with the baby's pupils and PSP 4 has no way to move a selection without also dragging part of the image.  You may also want to set a feather of 1 or 2.  As always, settings will probably differ slightly for each photo you try this with.

4. Copy the pupil (Ctrl + C).  Select the red channel image and paste the pupil into it.  Users of PSP 4 should probably paste "As Transparent Selection" (Ctrl + Shift + E).  Users of PSP 5 - 7 should paste "As New Layer" (Ctrl + L) - this will create a new layer just for the pupil, which will make it much easier to move it around if you mis-align it.  If you set the layer blend mode to "Difference", you may have an easier time lining up the pupils - the "glint" in the eye should turn completely black when it is lined up correctly.

   Be aware that if you paste the pupil as a layer, it will be turn up in the exact center of your photo and have to be moved to its proper location.  Don't lose it or forget it or you might end up with an eyeball in somebody's lap or in a dish of food.  In this case, I had to drag it out of the baby's ear.  ;-)

   
   Pasting the pupil into the Red Channel in PSP 4
   
   Misaligned pupil layer in PSP 5 - 7 using "Difference" blend mode

   
   Properly aligned pupil layer in PSP 5 - 7 using "Difference" blend mode

   Repeat the procedure for the other eye.  If you have been pasting the pupils as layers, be sure to change their blend modes back to "Normal" and merge all your layers (Layers > Merge > Merge All (Flatten)) before moving on to the next step.

5. When you have done both eyes, go to Color > Channel Combining (Combine Channel in PSP 7).  Users of PSP 4 go to Image > Channels > Combining.  You will get a dialog box like the one below.  If you check the box labeled "Sync blue and green to red if possible", PSP will automatically assign the right channels to the right sources.
   

   

These are the final images for this procedure.  The image on the left (made with PSP 4) shows a slight color fringe around the glint in the eye on the right side of the photo.  This is because I had trouble aligning the pupil properly.  The image on the right is the result of this procedure using PSP 5, 6, or 7 and using layers to align the pupils properly.