XnView has long been my favorite free graphics utility. Besides being a speedy image viewer for hundreds of graphics formats, it performs a number of other useful functions. One of these is red eye removal. This command is located under the Image menu. If your version of XnView does not show it there, update to the latest version.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 1 minute
Here's How:
- Open XnView and navigate to a folder containing an image with red eye, then double-click the thumbnail to open it in a tab.
- Zoom in so you can see the red-eye clearly. The + key will zoom in on the image.
- Click and drag within the image to create a selection around the red portion of one eye.
- Choose Image > Red Eyes Correction, or press Ctrl-E on your keyboard to correct the first eye.
- Repeat for the second eye.
- Hit the / key to return to viewing the whole image.
- Choose File > Save to overwrite the original image, or File > Save As to save the corrected image with a new name.
Tips:
- With some images, you can make a single selection around both eyes and correct them both in one step, but if the subject has a lot of red in the skin tones, this might turn some of the skin areas to gray. Try it, and if it doesn't work you can undo (Ctrl-Z) and then do each eye individually.
