Hillary Clinton's Yellow Teeth

Tips on How to Use Photoshop to Whiten Teeth

Hillary Clinton has yellow teeth. The original, completely unedited picture of her shot by photographer Janet Mayer on April 20, 2007, shows the United States presidential candidate doesn't use Crest Whitestrips. A quick review of other Hillary Clinton photos by different photographers on other occasions confirmed her yellow teeth here are not the result of improper white balance or incorrect digital camera settings. As you can see, the other colors and skin tone look normal. Closeup of Hillary's Clinton's Yellow Teeth These aren't "pearly whites" and she is not "ready for her closeup." She has reasonably straight teeth and a nice smile, but it's ruined by her yellow teeth. You just can't miss them.

Despite this unflattering image, Mrs. Clinton provides good raw material to demonstrate how you can to do some dental work on chompers in Photoshop. Can Hillary's teeth be cleaned? Funnily enough, Hillary Clinton was turned into a statue at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and the same photographer who caught her in the first smiling photo above, captured her wax image using the same camera a year prior (left). Naturally the wax Hillary Clinton has white teeth. These pearly whites aren't so bright white they look fake; instead, they look quite natural. So we can use them as a guide during the color photo editing process to try and match their color. General Inspection The first thing to do when you check teeth on a portrait is to see if the color is acceptable. Unless you're working on a teeth whitening ad, it probably doesn't have to be perfect.

Shades of Yellow

If the teeth you inspect aren't clean enough, look closer to see if there is more than one shade of yellow.

Hillary Clinton's teeth have two obvious shades of yellow. The main parts of her teeth are light yellow; and the "tops" of her teeth at the gum, which are more difficult to clean by brushing, are darker yellow.

As you know, Photoshop views images in three different shades: blacks, grays ("midtones"), and whites. What you need to determine is if the yellow falls into the "white" category of images or the "white and "gray" categories. (More on this in a minute.)

Whiter Teeth

There is more than one way to whiten teeth in Photoshop. Two possible ways to clean up include: 1) Levels/Color Balance; and, 2) Dodge tool.

For both styles of teeth color correction, it is advisable to isolate the teeth and copy them onto a new layer. If you don't do this, you could damage the original photo or mess up the gum color just as you correct the teeth color.

Step-by-Step in Photoshop

Start by using the Magic Wand tool to select the teeth. The default Photoshop setting of 33 is often good, because there is usually enough color contrast between the teeth and gums for the wand tool to select just the teeth. But slightly less, i.e., about 25, may work better. (You can try adjusting the setting to get an idea of what works better or fastest.)

Zoom in to about 400% magnification or enough to easily select the edges of the teeth. A few clicks on the teeth with the Magic Wand (your selection setting should be good enough to select most all the teeth in less than a dozen clicks), should select them all entirely. If you accidentally selected part of the gums, use the Lasso tool to remove them.

Once you have the teeth and only the yellow teeth selected, save the selection.

Feather the teeth selection with Feather Radius 1.

Create a new layer of the feathered selection and name it Teeth.

Create an Adjustment Layer for Levels.

Adjust the levels for whites and grays to make the teeth brighter and whiter.

Those quick basic adjustments produced dramatic improvements, but you can see there's still some yellow left. You may also notice Clinton has teeth with colors that don't match. Her big front tooth on the left (her right) is whiter than the other front tooth. (It may not be her natural tooth.) The tooth beside it is also whiter. These differences were apparent before any color adjustments were made, but you may want to "correct" the colors for uniformity.

How can you remove the remaining yellow?

Create an Adjustment Layer for Color Balance, grouping it to the Teeth Layer.

Adjust the Color Balance setting for the Midtones and Whites of the last slider (increase Blue to remove yellow).

Before (Yellow Teeth)	After (White Teeth)

The picture on the right shows you the contrast between her top teeth and bottom. Look how dark her teeth usually are. Apply the same technique for them, and you get the picture below.

And there you have it. Now Hillary Clinton has reason to smile. Notice how it makes her look not only better but younger.

One big thing to keep in mind when working on teeth to make them whiter is not to blow out the highlights. When you start whitening teeth in Photoshop, it can be easy to go too far and make them too white. One hundred percent white does not look natural. You need practice and after you have a trained eye you will know the natural brightness.

Some photo editors use Desaturation to remove yellow. This can look okay, but often it will give the teeth a "dullness" that is unnatural and unflattering.

If you are really picky, you can isolate a few teeth, or one tooth to adjust its tone and color, instead of selecting all of them. For uniformity, the next picture has three top teeth slightly adjusted at the same time, then just her slightly darker front tooth. See if you can discern the difference.

For a clearer contrasting image of how much brightness and cleaning took place, here's one final shot.

"You've Come a Long Way, Baby!"

(Photos © Janet Mayer / PR Photos)

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