Sometimes, it's those subtle post processing adjustments that can improve a photograph. Earlier in the week, I captured some photos of Zenda, an African lion at the Brookfield Zoo. I liked his pose and the soft, diffused light from the cloudy sky. Here is one of the images:

African lion While processing the image, I thought that the lion's eyes looked flat.  Here's a closer look at his eyes:

African lion So, I brightened his eyes by applying a "screen" mask in Photoshop. First, I duplicated the layer. Then, I selected "screen" as the layer blend mode. Since I only wanted to brighten the eyes, I applied a layer mask in black (black conceals the mask). Then, I selected a white brush (white reveals) and removed the black mask just from the eyes. Finally, I reduced the opacity of the layer to 36% to make the adjustment more natural as the eyes looked fake and manipulated at 100%.

Here's a close up of the eyes after screening:

African lion Again, the change is subtle. But, I think it improves the photograph.

There are many methods of brightening eyes in Photoshop. As of late, I find the screening mask to be a quick and easy fix for most situations.