Adjusting skin tones in Lightroom

Is there a good technique to adjust for proper skin tones just using Lightroom?

Hi, Michael. In the following book, the author gives an idea of what the CMY values should be for skin of different races. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for. Here's a link to the book.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Complete-Digitally-Photographing-Retouching/dp/047004733X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198700447&sr=8-1

Use a grey board and all the other values will fall along with it.

 

If you are doing wedding work, shoot a JPEG with flash and you will have a sample to work from. Two side by

side images can be opened at one time to make comparisons easier. Match the one good known JPEG and the

other while both are open.

The book Diane recommends, Lee Varis' SKIN, has been very helpful to me. I've absorbed

only a fraction of its content, but I've seen great improvement in my retouching ability.

That said, what I know of the skin tone techniques won't apply within Lightroom, since the

book is Photoshop-centric, though I think there's something to learn from Varis'

recommendations, regardless. Ronald's approach will yield true color, but that may not be

the desired outcome. For example, as Varis points out, there are various cultural

sensitivities that one should consider.

 

The simple answer for me is getting a good white balance, warming or cooling to taste,

then adjusting the HSL sliders until I like what I see, skin color-wise. Simple enough,

perhaps, but not a much of a recipe, since I approach it more or less ad hoc.

 

I have a lot to learn, so I'll be interested to see what more sophisticated Lightroom users

have to say.

If you are a Canon user, you may find that Canon's included DPP (digital photo professional) software does a better job than Lightroom (or ACR) with skintones.

The CMYK number game, especially in light of how Lightroom operates is a waste of time.

CMYK is an output color space, based on a specific mix of inks and paper on usually a

press.

 

You don't need to worry about ratio's of skin (which I'll add vary a LOT) using some odd

output color space, you can do this in RGB once you have a few representative images that

contain good skin.

 

But the numbers? How about just LOOKING at the skin (which varies a lot) on a calibrated

display? In LR, the HLS controls are great at working on skin or other selective work, use

the Direct Select Tool to mouse over the area and affect Hue, luminance or saturation (or

all three). Very powerful. Then if you get the skin as you like and want to work with

numbers (in LR it's RGB using percentages), fine.

... use the Direct Select Tool...<P>

 

Not sure what that is in LR, but I use the Target Adjustment Tool (TAT) and my mouse's

scrollwheel in HSL mode. You need to click on the icon in the HSL panel first, select either

Hue, Saturation, or Luminance, place the cursor over an area to adjust, and then scroll the

wheel while looking at the results. Works really slick. TAT/Scroll also works in

Curves...<P>

 

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