Quick method to whiten teeth in Photoshop

Published on February 7, 2022

Whiten teeth

In this blog I will show you a very quick and simple method to whiten teeth (using one adjustment layer only) in Adobe Photoshop.

If you want to download the image I used, click here. Now, let’s get started!

Step 1: Make a selection

Open the image you want to edit. Select the lasso tool and make a selection around the teeth. This selection doesn’t have to be very precise, as long as you select all the teeth.

Don’t make the selection too large. We will change everything in the yellow color range later on, because the teeth are in the yellow color range. If you select more than just the teeth (the skin, for example), these areas may change in color too if they happen to be in the yellow color range. To avoid that, make a selection around the teeth only.

Step 2: Whiten teeth

Now create a new hue/saturation adjustment layer.

If you look at your layer panel, you’ll see that the hue/saturation layer now has a layer mask. Because you made that selection with the lasso tool before, only the area within that selection (the white area in the layer mask) will be affected by the changes you’re about to make. The black areas in your layer mask won’t change.

As I said before, the teeth are in the yellow color range. Select ‘yellows‘ and lower the saturation and increase the lightness to whiten the teeth. Make sure you don’t overdo it, you want it to look realistic. So take a good look at your image while making these changes.