A method is provided for correcting undesired eye color in a digital image. Color information from the digital image is used to identify an orthogonal color channel. The orthogonal color channel is a channel corresponding to a color that is orthogonal to the undesired color. Information from the orthogonal color channel is used to perform channel mixing. The channel mixing is selectively applied to the original digital image using a masking effect to retain certain portions of the original image and replace certain portions of the original image with the channel-mixed image. This method achieves natural-looking black pupils and preserves specular reflections to conceal the fact that the digital image has been corrected.