Continued...
For the second part of this exercise, I made a smaller selection (the pupils and the irises of both eyes) to experiment and make enhancements. First, I played with the colour palette to select various colours. Having settled on two different colours for the eyes of my imaginary person, I made two different versions of the image.
Picture 7: Selecting a smaller areas of the image and making adjustments with the Curves tool
Picture 8: The image (version 1) with altered colour of the iris - deselected image after the adjustments
Picture 9: The image (version 2) with altered colour of the iris - deselected image after the adjustments
I really did not like the look of these two pictures. I thought that both colours looked unnatural – this might be because I know the person who was photographed really well. I did not feel particularly comfortable with the adjustments although I can see the value of making enhancements on a smaller selection (eyes are particularly suitable for this kind of work and make the most dramatic impact). I can see how some mild enhancement applied directly to the eye area could be very beneficial and could make an image look special.
