How to Digitally Whiten Teeth in Photoshop

As a glamor photographer, I know a lot of tricks to digitally enhance photos in Photoshop. The one I use just about every time is whitening teeth. Because of the popularity of teeth whitening and the ease of digital enhancements, a photo just doesn't look finished without a bright sparkling white smile.

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements make it very easy to whiten teeth. There are many different tools and methods that work. However, I have found what I believe to be the easiest and most natural way to enhance teeth.

Before you make any adjustments to the teeth make sure the rest of the image is already color corrected. The last steps I always take when editing an image is to whiten the teeth and then sharpen the overall image very slightly.

After all of your other enhancements are made to the image zoom in on the person's smile you want to whiten. Using the lasso tool with zero feathering draw a selection around the teeth. You don't need to be too precise. We are only going to be working with shades of yellow so you go ahead and include gums and lips into the selection. Just be careful not to select the skin outside the lips since some skin tones contain yellow.

Once you have done this click on the "Image" button on the menu bar. Select "Adjust" and then "Hue and Saturation". A box will pop up. There is a drop down menu at the top of the box. Select the color "yellow". You will then use the sliders below to adjust the saturation and the lightness. This should only affect the teeth. Even though the teeth may not appear yellow, the shades of off-white that make up the teeth's color are categorized as yellow in image editing programs.

The middle slider controls the saturation. Experiment by pulling the slider to the left to de-saturate the yellows. Don't go overboard or the teeth will look unnaturally gray colored. The last slider controls the brightness of the particular color you have selected. Slide this one slightly to the right. This will brighten up the teeth and help them appear whiter.

There are no perfect settings that will work every time because each individual's teeth differ in color and you want to get the most natural enhanced look you can manage.

When you have finished zoom out and look at the whole image. The teeth should be pretty and white but not so bright they distract from the rest of the photo. Remember that gentle adjustments are all that are needed. You don't want your editing to be obvious and fake looking.

Now have fun enhancing the beautiful smiles in your photos.