How to remove red eye from photos in Windows 11?

When you do use a dedicated tool to remove red eye in photos, a frequent mistake is using it incorrectly. The most effective tools often allow you to click directly on the affected area, and they automatically handle the correction.

GlMP is another fantastic, totally free option on Windows 11 for fixing those glowing peepers. It's a bit more "pro" than Paint .NET, but the basic way to how to remove red eye in photos with it is still pretty straightforward.

Here's the casual, step-by-step breakdown:

• Make a selection first: This is the most important part. Grab the Ellipse Select tool (or the Lasso if you're feeling fancy) and carefully draw a circle or oval around just the red part of one eye . You'll want to do this for each eye separately. The filter works way better when you tell it exactly where to look—if you don't, it'll literally pop up a message telling you to manually select the eyes for better results .
• Find the magic filter: Once you've got an eye selected, head up to the top menu and click Filters -> Enhance -> Red Eye Removal .
• Tweak and click OK: A little dialog box will appear with a slider called Thresh old. Moving this changes how much of the red color gets removed. Just play with it until the eye looks natural again, then hit OK. Rinse and repeat for the other eye.
• Bonus for GlMP 3.0 users: If you're using the newer version, the red-eye removal is actually non-destructive now . That means you can apply it, and if you change your mind later, you can just uncheck it or tweak it without messing up your original photo. Pretty neat!

That's the GlMP way on how to remove red eye in photos. A tiny bit more hands-on with the selections, but it gives you a lot of control and gets the job done perfectly.

The way to how to remove red eye in photos with Paint. NET is surprisingly simple. You've basically got a couple of options, and they're both easy to find.

The Built-in Way: how to remove red eye in photos?

The program actually has a dedicated effect just for this. You'll want to use the selection tools (like the "Rectangle Select" or "Lasso") to draw a box around just one of the red eyes . This is important because it tells the program exactly where to work so it doesn't accidentally mess with the rest of your photo's colors .

Then, just head up to the top menu and go to Effects -> Photo -> Red Eye Removal. Click that, and it should automatically fix the selected area . If it doesn't look perfect on the first try, just make sure your selection is tighter and try again—you can always hit undo!

Some folks on the internet swear by an older method using the "Color Replacement" tool . The idea is you set your primary color to black and your secondary color to red, then you literally just paint over the red parts of the eye . It's a bit more manual, but if you're on an older version of Paint. NET or just like having more control, it can work like a charm. You can adjust the brush size and the tolerance to make sure you're only hitting the red bits.

Online photo editors offer a completely free and effective way to remove red eye in photos on Windows 11, often without needing to install any dedicated software. These browser-based tools typically process the image locally on your device, meaning your photos are not uploaded to a server, which is beneficial for privacy.

To remove red eye in photos, the general process is quite simple. You upload your photo to the online editor, which supports common formats like JPEG, PNG, and HEIC. Many of these tools allow for either automatic detection of the red areas or a manual click on each pupil to apply the correction.

You can usually adjust settings like the Pupil Size and Darken Amount to make the correction look natural. Since you want to remove red eye in photos and save them in full resolution, look for a tool that offers full-resolution downloads without watermarks or restrictions on usage. Many online editors are free, require no account, and allow unlimited use, making them a quick and private solution to fix this common photography problem.

Paint is an open-source, lightweight image editor that supports red-eye removal in photos, but you need to install an additional plugin to use its red-eye correction tool.

How to Remove Red Eye in Photos

1. Download the software from the official website.
2. Search online for an open-source red-eye removal plugin and download the file.
3. Copy the downloaded plugin file to the Effects folder within the software's installation directory.
4. Launch the software and open the photo you want to edit.
5. Use the selection tool to draw a box around the pupil area.
6. Click the Effects menu and select Red-Eye Removal.
7. Adjust the sliders to achieve a natural correction, then click OK.
8. Click Save or Save As to save the edited image.

Cons

• By default, it cannot directly remove red-eye from photos; you must manually install a plugin
• Without installing third-party plugins, the official built-in editing features are somewhat limited

This plugin-based software solution enables precise photo editing and effectively remove red eye in photos. It is ideal for users who need customizable photo editing effects and don’t mind installing additional plugins.

Notes

• Place the plugin file inside the folder; otherwise, the “Remove Red-Eye” option will not appear in the menu.
• When marking red pupils, do not drag the selection box too large, as this may cause unnatural color distortion around the eyes.

Microsoft Word and PowerPoint are built-in Office applications equipped with basic picture editing functions that you can use to remove red eye in photos, yet their retouch precision is far lower than dedicated professional photo editing software.

Instructions: Insert your target photo via the Insert > Pictures menu, select the imported image to open the Picture Format tab at the top of the window, click Corrections and locate the Red Eye Removal option, then click each red eye area on the photo for automatic correction; right-click the edited picture and select Save as Picture to export it as an independent JPG file.

Its advantages include no extra software installation required as Office is pre-installed on most Windows PCs, straightforward one-click red eye correction operation, and support for exporting modified photos separately without overwriting the original image.

Its drawbacks include low correction accuracy compared with specialized editors, lack of adjustable parameters to optimize natural eye color effects, and the Red Eye Removal function hidden deep inside submenus which is hard for new users to find quickly.

This allows you to simply remove red eye in photos without downloading third-party editing tools. It is suitable for casual users who already own the Microsoft Office suite and only need temporary simple red eye fixes for daily snapshot images.

Microsoft Paint is a built-in drawing tool on Windows that you can use to how to remove red eye in photos, yet it relies on fully manual retouching and does not have automatic one-click correction features.It lets you fix red eye without installing extra photo editors, but the manual brush operation makes the process slow and the retouching effect look unnatural.

First, right-click your target photo, choose Open with, then select Microsoft Paint to load the image. Drag the zoom slider at the bottom to zoom in tightly on the red eye area. Click the Eyedropper tool and sample the natural dark color of the undamaged part of the same eye. Switch to the Pencil or Brush tool, shrink the brush size to a tiny dimension, then paint slowly and carefully over all red patches on the pupil.

Once you finish covering all red areas, click Save or Save as to keep the edited picture on your computer.

This manual painting solution only serves as an emergency backup to how to remove red eye in photos. It is suitable for users who have no other photo editing software available and only need a rough temporary fix for individual photos.

If you cannot launch the Photos app for red eye correction and just need a quick makeshift solution, you can try this method. The retouching result is not smooth and requires careful manual work, so you should adjust the brush size and color sampling repeatedly before finalizing the edit.

The Photos app preinstalled on Windows 11 supports basic editing to how to remove red eye in photos, but it only focuses on simple single-image retouching and cannot process photos in batches.This native system tool allows users to finish red eye correction operations without downloading extra software, while its editing functions are limited to basic minor fixes like red-eye elimination.

How to Remove Red Eye in Photos

Step 1: Double-click the target image to open it in the software.

Step 2: Click the pencil-shaped “Edit Image” icon in the top toolbar.

Step 3: Select the “Red-Eye” option (marked with an eye icon) from the editing toolbar.

Step 4: Click and drag to draw a small rectangle around each red-eye area in the photo.

Step 5: The program will immediately and automatically correct all selected red-eye areas.

Finally, click Save a Copy or Save to save the edited photo to your computer.

The built-in photo editor lets you fix red-eye in your everyday snapshots. It’s ideal for everyday users who only need to make simple adjustments to their photos from time to time and don’t want to install third-party editing software.

ps

• Be sure to select Save a Copy to preserve the original, unedited photo file.
• Drag the small box precisely around the red-eye area; if the selection is too large, it may cause unnatural changes to the skin tone on the face.
• The Red-Eye Removal tool is only suitable for portrait photos with red-eye caused by a flash; it is not suitable for other eye color issues.