In this tutorial, I ‘ll show you how to whiten teeth in Photoshop using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer which lets us both whiten and brighten teeth at the same time. We ‘ll start by learning how to whiten teeth for a single person in an image, and then we ‘ll learn how to whiten the teeth for two or more people in the lapp photograph using freestanding adaptation layers .
To follow along, you can use any photograph where person ‘s teeth could look white. I ‘ll use this effigy that I downloaded from Adobe Stock :
The original double. credit rating : Adobe Stock.
Reading: How To Whiten Teeth In Photoshop
If I zoom in for a closer search, we see some yellow in the tooth, specially with the serviceman on the left. Both people ‘s teeth could besides use some brighten. We can do both of these things ( whiten and clear up teeth ) using a single Hue/Saturation adjustment layer :
Both people ‘s teeth could be whiter and bright .
Let ‘s get started !
How To Whiten Teeth In Photoshop
For this tutorial, I ‘m using Photoshop CC but every step is compatible with Photoshop CS6. You can besides follow along with my video recording of this tutorial on our YouTube channel. Or download this tutorial as a print-ready PDF !
Step 1: Select The Lasso Tool
start by drawing a survival around the tooth. Select the Lasso Tool from the Toolbar :
Selecting the Lasso Tool .
Step 2: Draw A Selection Around The Teeth
If you ‘re working on a photograph with two or more people in it, as I am here, you may be tempted to select and whiten everyone ‘s teeth at once. But the trouble is, everyone ‘s teeth are different and normally need different amounts of whitening. You ‘ll get better results by whitening one person ‘s tooth at a time. I ‘ll start with the man on the bequeath .
Draw a survival around the tooth. Do n’t worry if it ‘s not the most accurate choice because we can well clean it up late. Just trace around the tooth, staying as close to the edges as possible :
Drawing a excerpt draft around the tooth with the Lasso Tool .
Step 3: Add A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer
Click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel :
Clicking the New Fill or Adjustment Layer picture .
Choose Hue/Saturation from the list :
Selecting a Hue/Saturation alteration layer .
A Hue/Saturation adjustment layer appears above the Background layer :
The adaptation is added above the prototype .
Step 4: Change The Edit Option To Yellows
The controls and options for the Hue/Saturation alteration layer are found in Photoshop ‘s Properties panel. By default, Hue/Saturation affects all colors in the image equally, and that ‘s because the Edit choice is set to Master :
The Edit choice is set to Master by default .
To edit merely the yellows in the picture so we can remove the chicken from the tooth, change the Edit option to Yellows :
Changing the Edit option from Master to Yellows .
Step 5: Lower The Saturation Of The Yellow
Click on the Saturation slider and begin dragging it to the bequeath. The further you drag, the more you ‘ll desaturate the yellow in the tooth, making them white. Keep in mind, though, that teeth naturally have some chicken in them. If you drag the Saturation luger all the way to the leave, as I ‘m doing here :
Dragging the Saturation slider to -100 .
You ‘ll remove the yellow completely, resulting in teeth that look boring and lifeless :
Grayish-white is not a healthy look for teeth .
rather, keep an eye on your visualize as you drag the luger and leave just adequate chicken to keep the tooth looking natural. The setting you need will depend on how yellow the teeth were to begin with. For my persona, a Saturation value of around -80 works well :
Dialing back the Saturation value .
Whitening The Teeth: Before And After
To better judge the results, compare the whiten interpretation of the teeth with how they looked originally. In the Layers control panel, click the Hue/Saturation alteration layer ‘s visibility icon. Click it once to temporarily hide the effects of the adjustment level and opinion the original picture. Click it again to turn the alteration layer back on and view the white interpretation :
Toggling the adaptation layer on and off with the visibility icon .
here ‘s a before-and-after comparison showing the improvement so far. The leave half of the teeth are how they looked in the first place. The proper half are how they look after removing most ( but not all ) of the yellow :
A earlier ( left ) and after ( right ) comparison of the tooth whitening .
Step 6: Change The Edit Mode Back To Master
We ‘ve whitened the tooth, so now let ‘s brighten them. Change the Edit option in the Properties panel from Yellows back to Master so we can adjust all colors at once, not precisely the yellows :
Setting Edit spinal column to Master .
Step 7: Drag The Lightness Slider To Brighten The Teeth
Click the Lightness skidder and begin dragging it towards the right. The far you drag, the lighter the teeth will appear. Keep an eye on your picture as you drag the luger so you do n’t brighten them excessively much. For my image, a Lightness value of around +20 works well :
Increasing Lightness to brighten the tooth .
The teeth are now looking bright. But depending on how accurate you were when selecting the tooth with the Lasso Tool, you may notice some areas around the tooth that have besides been brightened. In my case, there ‘s some unwanted brighten in the lips and gums along the crown and bottom of the teeth. We ‘ll clean up these areas next :
The teeth have been brightened, but so have areas around the dentition .
Step 8: Select The Brush Tool
A decent feature of speech of adjustment layers in Photoshop is that they include a built-in layer mask. In the Layers dialog box, we see the layer mask thumbnail on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. The thumbnail is filled largely with black, with only a small area filled with white. The black represents the areas in our image that are not being affected by the adjustment layer. The white is the area that is being affected. Photoshop used our initial Lasso Tool selection to create the layer mask for us, filling the sphere we selected ( the tooth ) with white and filling everything else with black :
The layer mask thumbnail for the Hue/Saturation alteration level .
To clean up the areas around the teeth, all we need to do is paint on the layer mask with a brush. Select the Brush Tool from the Toolbar :
Selecting the Brush Tool .
Step 9: Set Your Foreground Color To Black
We need to paint over the unwanted areas with black. Photoshop uses our stream Foreground color as the brush color, which means we need to set our Foreground color to black. The stream Foreground and Background colors appear in the color swatches near the bottom of the Toolbar. The swatch in the upper left is the Foreground semblance. The swatch in the lower properly is the Background color. First, press the letter D on your keyboard. This resets your foreground and Background colors to their defaults, making your Foreground semblance white and your Background color black. then, to swap them and set your Foreground color to blacken, press the letter X on your keyboard :
The Foreground coloring material ( upper leftover ) should be set to total darkness.
Step 10: Paint Around The Teeth To Clean Up The Area
key around the teeth to clean up any problem areas. A belittled, soft-edge brush will work estimable. You can adjust the size of your brush from the keyboard. Press the left bracket key ( [ ) repeatedly to make the brush smaller or the right bracket key ( ] ) to make it larger. To make the brush balmy, weight-lift and hold Shift while pressing the left bracket key, or hold Shift and press the right bracket key to make the brush edges harder .
Example: Cleaning Up Around The Teeth
here, I ‘m painting along the upper sass and gum line above the tooth to remove the whiten and clear up from those areas. Since we ‘re painting on the layer dissemble, not on the image itself, we do n’t see the brush discolor as we paint. rather, the effects of the Hue/Saturation alteration layer disappear :
Cleaning up the areas above the tooth .
I ‘ll paint along the bottom edges of the dentition a well to remove the whiten and brighten from the lower lip :
Cleaning up the areas below the tooth .
If you make a error and incidentally paint over the teeth, weigh the letter X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors. This sets your brush color to white. paint over the error to bring back the whitening, and then crush X again to set your brush color back to black and continue paint .
I ‘ll paint away the remaining trouble areas on the exit and correct sides of the dentition, and hera ‘s the resultant role. The teeth are now looking white and bright while the areas around them are bet on to normal :
The consequence after cleaning up the surrounding areas .
Adjusting The Brightness Of Specific Teeth
The teeth are looking adept, except for one area. There ‘s three bottom teeth on the right that were initially darker than the others because of shadows being cast on them. After brightening the tooth with the Lightness slider, those three teeth now look faded and washed out :
A few of the teeth are looking unnaturally inner light .
To fix a trouble like this, you can reduce the effect of the Hue/Saturation alteration layer on particular teeth by painting over them with black using a lower brush opacity. You ‘ll find the Opacity option in the Options Bar. I ‘ll lower mine from 100 % ( the default setting ) down to 50% :
Lowering the brush opacity .
then, with my brush color hush set to black, I ‘ll paint over those teeth to restore some of their original brightness. When you ‘re done, remember to set the opacity back to 100%, otherwise you ‘ll get unexpected results the future time you use the brush :
Painting over those three teeth to bring back some of the original shadows .
I ‘ll zoom out so we can see the final solution. sol army for the liberation of rwanda, indeed good. The serviceman ‘s teeth are looking white and bright. By comparison, the yellow in the womanhood ‘s tooth has become more obtrusive :
The result after whitening and brightening the man ‘s dentition .
Learn more: Understanding Layer Masks in Photoshop
Whitening Teeth For More People In The Photo
As I mentioned earlier, for best results when whitening teeth for two or more people in the like photograph, you ‘ll want to use a branch Hue/Saturation adaptation layer for each person. We ‘ve already gone through the details of each mistreat when I corrected the man ‘s teeth, so I ‘ll go through them again quickly here with the womanhood ‘s tooth fair so we can see how to work with multiple alteration layers in Photoshop .
Selecting The Teeth
foremost, I ‘ll reselect the Lasso Tool from the Toolbar. You can besides select the Lasso Tool by pressing the letter L on your keyboard :
Reselecting the Lasso Tool .
then, I ‘ll draw a choice outline around the charwoman ‘s teeth :
Selecting the womanhood ‘s tooth with the Lasso Tool .
Adding A New Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer
I ‘ll click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel :
Clicking the New Fill or Adjustment Layer picture .
then I ‘ll once again choose Hue/Saturation from the list :
Adding a separate Hue/Saturation alteration layer for the woman ‘s tooth .
A second Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is added. The one at the circus tent is the one I ‘ll be using to whiten the womanhood ‘s tooth. The one below it is the original adaptation layer I used for the world ‘s teeth :
The second gear alteration layer appears above the inaugural one .
Whitening The Teeth
With the second base adjustment layer added, the steps for whitening and brightening her teeth are the lapp as ahead. In the Properties gore, I ‘ll change the Edit option from Master to Yellows. then I ‘ll drag the Saturation luger to the leave to reduce, but not completely remove, the jaundiced from her teeth. For the man ‘s tooth, I lowered the impregnation to a value of -80. This fourth dimension, I do n’t need to go quite that far. A value of around -70 should do it :
The womanhood ‘s teeth need less whitening than the man ‘s .
Brightening The Teeth
To brighten her teeth, I ‘ll change the Edit option from Yellows back to Master, then I ‘ll increase the Lightness value by dragging the slider towards the right. Her teeth are already reasonably bright so I wo n’t push the Lightness prize as far this time. I ‘ll increase it to +10 :
Adding just a hint of brightening with the Lightness slider .
Cleaning Up Around The Teeth
finally, I ‘ll select the Brush Tool, either from the Toolbar or by pressing the letter B on my keyboard :
Selecting the Brush Tool .
then I ‘ll paint with black on the layer masquerade using a small, soft-edge brush to clean up the areas around the teeth :
Cleaning up the areas around the dentition by painting with black on the layer mask .
Before And After
And with that, we ‘re done ! Both people ‘s teeth are now white and undimmed. To compare the edit interpretation of the image with the original version, press and hold the Alt ( Win ) / Option ( Mac ) identify on your keyboard and click the Background level ‘s visibility icon :
Clicking the Background layer ‘s visibility icon while pressing Alt ( Win ) / Option ( Mac ) .
This hides all layers in the text file except the Background layer, revealing the master photograph :
Viewing the original trope for comparison .
To turn the alteration layers back on, press and hold Alt ( Win ) / Option ( Mac ) and chink again on the Background level ‘s visibility icon. And here, after whitening the woman ‘s teeth using a separate adjustment layer, is my final resultant role :
The final result .
How To Whiten Teeth In Photoshop – Quick Summary
We covered a set in this tutorial. hera ‘s a quick drumhead of the steps for how to whiten teeth in Photoshop :
- 01. First, select the Lasso Tool and draw a selection around the teeth.
- 02. In the Layers panel, click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon and choose a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
- 03. In the Properties panel, change the Edit option from Master to Yellows.
- 04. Drag the Saturation slider to the left to reduce the yellow in the teeth.
- 05. Still in the Properties panel, change the Edit option from Yellows back to Master.
- 06. Select the Brush Tool, set your Foreground color to black, then paint around the teeth on the layer mask to hide the effects of the adjustment layer in the lips and gums.
- 07. For images with two or more people, use a separate Hue/Saturation adjustment layer for each person for best results.
And there we have it ! That ‘s how to easily whiten and brighten teeth using a simple Hue/Saturation alteration layer in Photoshop ! Visit our Photo Retouching segment for more image editing tutorials !
