How to Easily Turn Reading Glasses Into Sunglasses in Photoshop

Photoshop Post Processing

Editing glasses in a photo can be a useful technique to create different variations of a single image and is a technique used by many photographers. There are of course many different ways to change how glasses look in a photo, but in this tutorial I will show you a very simple yet effective way to turn regular reading glasses into sunglasses using Adobe Photoshop. This technique can come in handy when you have a great shot that could use a little extra flair or maybe when you want to try out different looks without having to change your own glasses.

Step 1

Open your image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Pick the "Quick Selection Tool" (W) and make a selection of the glasses area as shown.

Step 3

With the selection active, go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient. Name this layer as "Sunglasses" and click OK.

Step 4

Set the layer blending mode to "Multiply".

Step 5

Double click on the gradient thumbnail to open the Gradient Fill panel.

Step 6

Click on the gradient thumbnail to open the Gradient Editor.

Step 7

Double click on the first color stop and set any color you want for your sunglasses. In this case I will set mine to #ff887c.

Step 8

Double click on the second color stop, set any color you wish (I will be using #b6325f) and click OK in the Gradient Editor window.

Step 9

In the Gradient Fill window, set the correct gradient angle according to your image and click OK. In this case, an angle of 104º seems to be perfect.

Step 10

Lastly, for a nice finishing touch, with the Sunglasses layer selected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow. Apply the following settings and click OK. Note: Pick a color that match any of your gradient colors.

Some Final Notes

Now that you know how easily you can turn reading glasses into sunglasses, you can easily change the colors by editing the gradient of the "Sunglasses" layer like in the following examples.