Here’s a quick way to boost the impact of eyes in your portraits. Our starting image is this one by zara…

portrait-eyes-1

Duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J) and set the blend mode to “Screen”. Add a layer mask to this layer and fill it with black so that it hides the screen layer but then paint the whites and irises of the eyes back in with white. This is usually a bit extreme so now reduce the opacity of the screen layer until the whites look natural. Your photo will now look something like this…

portrait-eyes-2

Now add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and increase the contrast (I’ve gone for the full 100). Add a hide all (black) layer mask to the adjustment layer and then paint with white over the irises only.

portrait-eyes-3

The irises have probably become a bit of an unnatural colour by this point so use the adjustment layer to reduce their brightness until you’re happy with them. Here’s my final image…

portrait-eyes-4

…and here’s a before and after of the eyes…

portrait-eyes-5