Removing Dark Circle using Blending Modes in Photoshop Tutorial

As you can see in the image there are dark circles around the eyes. Let’s see how we can remove the dark circle in Photoshop Tutorial. Dark circles may be in the skin due tanning or due to the light effect whenever we are clicking the photograph.Here you will learn very easy way to remove dark circles. Firstly you need to know a few of the important tools in adobe photoshop e.g. Photoshop Layers, Clipping Layers and Mask, Blending modes, High Pass texture filter, Blending mode and clipping mask. I will discuss all the tools one by one.

Photoshop Layers 

Photoshop Layers are the back bone in the photoshop. Layers are just like sheets that can move, Drag, Stack. The main benefit of the layer is the “opacity” and the game begins here. Most of you see we are not able to blend or mix the photo effects in photo manipulation. this is just because of that we are not adjusting the opacity of the layer. Opacity is nothing but the transparency of the layer from the value 0 to 100. 0% means full transparency and 100% transparency is nil. So whenever you are applying brush with color on any layer just make sure to adjust the opacity of that particular layer. 

Photoshop Clipping Layers 

Clipping layers is just to clip 2 or more layers at the same time as shown in the fig 1.1. Photoshop clipping layers plays an important role. Suppose you have many layers as shown in the fig1.1. You want the effect on layer 2 to Layer 1 but not on the Background layer. You can use the clipp the layer by pressing alt and hover the mouse in between layer 2 and layer 1 then press click. then effect will only working on layer 1. Clipping layer is not limited to layer only but you can apply clipping to any of the adjustment layers. But in this Photoshop tutorial we are not using an adjustment layer.

Photoshop Blending Mode

Blending mode plays the most important role in photo mixing and seamless photoshop workflow. Use of the blending mode is color grading, sharpening, contrast, skin retouching, frequency separation, light effect, shadow effect, and texture. Blending mode is used to blend 2 or more layers underneath. There are many blending modes in photoshop. But you have to understand the 4 important blending modes as shown Fig 1.1 So these are Multiply ( Darkening ), Screen ( Lightening ), Overlay ( Contrast ) and Coloring ( Hue, Color, Luminosity ) 

Now, We have 2 layers. The background is a photo and  layer 1 that is having 2 colors black and white box and blending mode is normal fig 1.3 Change the blending mode to Multiply now white color from layer 1 will be hidden.

 Moreover we will now change the blending mode from Normal to Screen now black is hidden and white is still there (fig 1.3) so that means screen blending mode maintains the lighter shades in the photo and hides the darker shades. Now here is our main concern is to understand the overlay blending mode There are several uses of overlay blending mode but i will discuss the most common use of  Overlay blending mode in photoshop is used for Texture,Contrast, Dodge and Burn.

Now we will understand how overlay blending will give texture. So how it works whenever we have a mid gray tone ( 808080 ) value of color in the Fig below. Now change the blending to overlay, the midtone gray shade will be hidden so that means it will hide only gray rest black and white is creating contrast in the photo. Now you can apply black or white shade on mid tone gray to get the effect of light and dark.

Photoshop High Pass Filter 

High pass filter (Fig 1.1)is use to convert the layer by removing the color and maintaining the texture in photo. You can adjust the value of high pass filter for texture we are getting the photo. Most of the time we use 1 to 2 for skin texture but in this case of removing dark use the value around 4.

So lets start with process of removing dark circle

Open photo in photoshop CC As show in gif ( Fig 1.6 )Below. now will use everything that we have discussed below. So make a duplicate copy of background layers by pressing Ctrl + J. make another layer by pressing Ctrl + N and drag the layer in between both layers. Now apply high pass filter to layer 1 in Filter>Other>Highpass put the value around 4 to get more texture. Now you have mid gray tone layer adjust the blending mode to overlay as discussed above. Apply the clipping mask layer 1 to underneath layer. Select the brush by pressing B and take soft round brush. Adjust the opacity to 100% and flow 5% that is mandatory. Press Alt on the keyboard and chose the color from skin below eye. Apply the brush gently on the dark circle you can see now are able to remove the dark circle. 

Free Download Photoshop Action

Free Download Practice file

Watch this full Photoshop Tutorial to Remove Dark Circle