amanda_h1 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I am having trouble getting perfect skin tones. I use the white balance on my camera (I tend to use cloudy a lot, maybe this is the problem?) My skin tones tend to come out a little on the pink/magenta side. In PS I sometimes use the auto correct in Curves (but that doesn't always give me a nice result)and I find myself using Selective Color, adding a little yellow to offset the magenta. Are there any other PS techniques that are easier or made specifically for skin? I don't have any calibration software, could this be the problem? Could you suggest any? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kari douma Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Custom White Balance, shoot RAW and corect IF NEEDED in ACR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon jacobson Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 The big fix could very well be your monitor. Send some prints to the lab and see what happens. Then adjust your monitor accordingly. Absolutely agreeing with Douma, shoot raw. Digital's downfall is ironically digital's advantage. And that is white balance. A raw file can be manipulated on the computer just like changing out a roll of film. For those individual shots: In PS, create an adjustment layer of Saturate/Hue, find the drop-down next to edit and select Red. Adjust the saturation down to -15 and lightness to +15. Fill the adjustment mask with black (with the mask thumbnail active in the layers pallete, hit the D key then CTRL+BACKSPACE). Then with a soft brush, paint over the areas of skin you wish to correct. Then readjust further if needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becky_ziemer Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Have you ever played with Color balance? It can be found by going to Image-Adjust_color balance. I use that to fix yellow casts. Oh, and make sure that the little box marked "preserve luminosity" is not checked! BeckyZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry_ Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 You also need to find a way to understand that 'white' as in wedding dress, is a little different than 'skin tones.' Some eyeballs should have white but it generally is not the same 'white' as a wedding dress...you may just have to decide which color you want to be correct and let the other colors be a bit off. It may not be possible in every image to get every color unique at a wedding as each area you take photos in may not have the same room lighting or outdoor lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan mcgill - trm photo st Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I use Photo Filter under adjust. You should probably use green to offset the magenta... The first thing you need to do is calibrate your monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don_hill Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 <p>Amanda,</p> <p>You may want to invest in basic calibration software. I've been using Monaco EZ Color (software) and Monaco Optix (calibration tool) for the last few years and have not had any color issues. One note, you do want to use the monitor calibration tool (hockey puck) for correct color. You can do it by eye, but your color will be correct when using the proper tool.</p> <p>A good method for proper skin tones involves the white eyedropper in levels. Wedding dresses are all sorts of white, but men's shirts are generally the same tone of white. In levels, click the white eyedropper and click on a brightly lit portion of the shirt. Slide your midtones around and you should have proper skin tones.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmahler5th Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 A Photoshop plugin like SkinTune might help you learn more quickly about color corrections, and also help you achieve the skin tones you are looking for without the manual process that many use. http://www.phototune.com/skintune_intro.html I reccommend the book called PhotoShop Color Correction (Michael Kieran). It gives excellent background into color theory, and provides generous amounts of step by step examples. Best of luck to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografz Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 ... or buy a $200. film camera and use Fuji film for when there are people in your photos : -) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografz Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Just kidding ... sort of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_kaplan1 Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 No, Marc, I don't think you are kidding! These days you can likely pick up a Pentax K-somthinoranother body with decent 35, 50 and 100mm Takumar lenses for $200. Sad but true! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lb- Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 yeah totally, I use velvia 50 polarzied for my up close portraits. lovely skin tones, haha you can always tell when marc is up to his eyeballs in processing digital images. dude, put some tri-x in the leica and get off the computer :) amanda, are you unhappy with the skin tones on your monitor or in your prints? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmahler5th Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 This article explains the manual steps for one approach. http://www.lonestardigital.com/skin_tones.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariana_daner Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 This free video tutorial will teach you Katrin Eisenmann's "color by numbers" technique for portraiture which I have found very useful! http://www.radiantvista.com/archive/video_tutorials/14/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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