What are the benefits of whitening teeth in photoshop?

We love to capture the beautiful moments of an anniversary, wedding, birthday, graduation, or other parties. Everyone is smiling and looking lively, but sometimes the group’s teeth color is inconsistent. Because of the teeth whitening capabilities of Adobe Photoshop, the teeth color imbalance can get removed.

White teeth on photoshop can also be useful when you are creating digital or print advertisements. You want the crisp finish of the photo to pop, and it all starts with the teeth color.

In this article, we provide a clear and concise step-by-step process of whitening teeth in Photoshop. With the help of three adjustment layers and a delicate painting process, you can transform yellow teeth into vibrant white ones!

Teeth Whitening Process

Zoom in on the Photo

Precision is essential with the white teeth photoshop process, so you want to begin by focusing on the view. Zoom in about 250-400%, so that you can look at them close on the screen.

The goal here is to implement the brush effect on the teeth without blemishing the lips or gums. If you press CTRL and the plus or minus keys, you can zoom in and out. This whiter teeth photoshop shortcut will save you time in the long run.

Implement the Lasso Tool

If you look to the left, you will see the toolbar with various icons. You want to choose the lasso tool from the menu to mark the selection in the teeth. If you are dealing with a photo of multiple people, you might feel tempted to do everyone at once. But each person’s mouth is shaped differently, so you want to focus on one person at a time with the lasso tool.

Next, draw the selection around the edges of the teeth. It does not need to be accurate because you can always go back and clean it up. If you stay as close as possible to the edges, you can start by tracing around the teeth of choice.

Apply a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

The Hue/Saturation workspace is a helpful resource for color management for your images. It allows you to change unattractive colors splashed in your photos, such as white imbalance and teeth whitening.

To implement this function, click the button with the empty squares on top and gradient on the lower half. You can edit the adjustment layer properties by lowering the lightness and saturation sliders.

Next, you can invert and adjust the layer mask so that it shows black. You can now apply the softer white brush to the teeth area. You will begin to see subtle improvements as you use the brush, but the significant changes will come after all layers have been implemented.

Prepare a Selective Color Layer

To create the selective color layer, you will need to click on the button that contains four triangles within it. You can edit the layer properties by choosing “yellow” from the dropdown menu of colors. Adjust the Cyan slider to +10, and then lower the Yellow slider to -23. Depending on how yellowish the teeth are, you can always adjust these settings for optimal results.

Much like you did before, invert this layer by clicking CTRL/CMD + i and then delicately apply paint across the teeth with the softer white brush. Again, you will notice a lot of improvement after you use this layer of color.

Apply a Curves Adjustment Layer

Within the adjustments panel, you will see an icon that shows an S-curve on a graph that goes bottom left to top right. To create the curves adjustment layer, click on this button. Next, please navigate to the properties panel, select the midpoint of the diagonal line, and then drag it slightly upwards.

You will then need to invert the layer by implementing the same command as you did before. For the third and final time, apply the white brush over the teeth. Now, you will notice the final improvements, which should show a beautiful, white smile.

How to Adjust the Brightness of Individual Teeth

There might be times when most of the teeth look excellent, except for a specific area. A few of the bottom teeth on one side might look slightly darker than the rest because of shadows or another lighting. After you touch up the teeth on the opposite side, it could make the teeth in question look washed out or faded.

There is a quick fix for this issue. You will need to lower the hue/saturation adjustment layer effect on these individual teeth. To do this, you must paint them with a black brush at low opacity. You can locate the opacity dropdown list in the options bar. The default setting is usually 100%, but you should reduce this down to 50%

After you reduce the opacity and your brush color still adjusted to black, you can paint over these individual teeth to return some of the initial brightness. Make sure that you reset the opacity back to 100% when you were done. That way, you are not surprised when you go back to the brush next time.

How to Optimize Photoshop Whiten Teeth Process for Multiple People in a Photo

When looking to whiten teeth in Photoshop for more than one person in the same photo, you will need to utilize a different hue saturation adjustment layer for each smile.

We already walked you through the process of applying the different layers to the original image to whiten teeth, so we will provide you some alternative options for whiten teeth this process and communicate ways on how to match it with the other smiles in the photo.

The whiten teeth photoshop process is simple. First, you need to select the lasso tool again from the side toolbar. Another alternative to completing this step is to press the L button on your keyboard. Like you did before, form a selection outline of the surrounding areas of the second person’s teeth.

Next, click on the adjustment layer or new fill button near the bottom part of the layers panel, then choose hue/saturation from the dropdown list of choices. Once you’ve chosen hue/saturation, a secondary adjustment layer is then implemented into the photo. The option on top is the layer you will be utilizing for the second person’s teeth. The one on the bottom is the initial adjustment layer used for the first person’s teeth.

Now that you have added the second adjustment layer, the brightening and whitening process is like before. Navigate to the properties panel, and then adjust the edit option to yellow from master. You do not want altogether to remove the yellow teeth from the second person, but you ideally want to reduce it. Therefore, click and drag the slider for saturation to the left.

If you reduced the saturation value to -80 before, you could set it slightly less this time. An amount of -70 should help you achieve what you are looking for.

If you wish to brighten the second person’s teeth, you can adjust the edit option to master from yellow. Next, you should raise the value for lightness and drag the slider to the right. Depending on the brightness of the second person’s teeth, you can increase it anywhere between +5 and +15.

Lastly, you might want to do some cleaning up and maintenance around the tooth. To wrap it up, you can click the brush tool via the toolbar or clicking the B letter on the keyboard. Then, you should paint on the layer mask using the black, soft-edge, small brush. These settings will allow you to clean up the rough spots around the teeth properly.

Final Recap

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into learning how to whiten teeth in Photoshop. Here is a quick recap of whiten teeth steps for review:

• Click the lasso tool and then begin drawing the selection around the edges of the teeth
• Select new fill or adjustment layer button in the layers panel and pick the hue saturation adjustment option
• Navigate to the properties panel, and then switch the edit settings to yellows from master
• Adjust the saturation slider leftwards to reduce the yellowing in the teeth
• Within the properties panel, turn the edit option back to master from yellows
• Click the brush tool and then adjust your foreground color over to black, and then proceed to paint the edges of the teeth