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Welcome to our multi-part blog series showing how to use Pretty Presets brushes and presets to edit portraits. This is essential because we all want our subjects to look their very best, and knowing how to use Lightroom portrait brushes will help you do that. Â
This tutorial will focus on whitening teeth and eyes in Lightroom!
Before we get started, I want to encourage everyone to fix any issues with their image's white balance first. This should be done before doing any brushwork.  The white balance is the overall color temperature and tint of the photo.
Once your white balance is set, click on the Masks icon, which is the farthest-right icon below the histogram on the top-right side of your Develop Module.
Once the Masks tool is activated, select the brush tool. In the new slider panel that opens, click on the word to the right of "Effect:" Scroll down the menu list until you get to "Teeth Whiten." In the Perfect Portrait Lightroom Brush Collection, there are two brushes you can use for whitening teeth: "Teeth Whiten Gray" and "Teeth Whiten Yellow." Select the tooth whitening brush that best fits your needs to correct teeth that are too yellow or too gray. There is also an "Eye and Teeth Whitener" included in the Clean Edit Portrait Collection.
In this case, the subject in our example image has slightly yellow teeth. So to whiten them, I would use the "Teeth Whiten Yellow" brush or the "Eye and Teeth Whitener" brush.
When editing teeth and eyes, which are small, defined areas, you will want to reduce the feather so that your brushing can be more precise.
For those who do not know what "feather" means - it's how much the edit will blend into the pixels around it. In portrait editing, it's usually best to use a larger feather - except when whitening teeth and eyes.
The feather slider is located just above the flow slider at the bottom of the Adjustment Brush Panel.  I set the brush feather to 54 for my example edit, meaning the brush is neither super hard nor super soft.
Once the feather and flow are set, click anywhere on the teeth and brush over the yellow areas to whiten them.  When you click on an area for the first time, Lightroom will place a pin and show a black/white brush or flag-shaped icon.Â
If the overlay mask is on, the areas brushed will show red which is often helpful to show areas that have already been brushed. However, sometimes it can be more advantageous to see the real-time changes as you brush. In those cases, you should turn off the mask overlay by clicking the option in the Masking panel or tapping the "O" key.
NOTE: Tapping the "O" key will turn the overlay mask off OR on! For more great Lightroom shortcuts, click here.
Now, let's move on to the eyes!Â
To whiten a subject's eyes (the white area around their iris), click the "+" at the top of the Masks panel and choose the "Brush" option. Then click on the brush name and choose the "Eye Whiten" brush.
As with whitening teeth, I use a lower feather setting and then brush over the whites of the eyes. Once again, the red area is a mask overlay which shows the areas that have already been brushed, and the black/white pin indicates that the brush is currently active.
When your edit is done, close the Masks panel by clicking the "Done" button at the bottom of the image or tapping the Masks icon in the toolbar just below the histogram.
To show all of the pins, activate the brush tool again. The brush pins will show as flag shapes as you move your mouse over the image. If you wish to edit or alter an area that has already been brushed, click on the pin or the specific layer in the masks panel and make adjustments as needed.
Thanks to the Pretty Presets Lightroom Portrait Brushes, WHITENING TEETH and WHITENING EYES are both very easy changes to make!
If you are a visual learner, follow along with the video below to quickly whiten eyes and teeth in Lightroom.
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If you missed our previous three portrait editing tutorials, check them out now! They build on the basic but necessary and essential things you need to know when editing portraits and using brushes in Lightroom:
If you would like additional training for our Lightroom Portrait Brushes, we have a fantastic, in-depth Lightroom Portrait Brush Training Video you can watch right here.
Do you have any questions or comments about How to Whiten Teeth and Eyes in Lightroom?  Just leave us a comment below - we would LOVE to hear from you! And PLEASE SHARE this post using the social sharing buttons (we really appreciate it)!
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