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Skin too peach?


stacy

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Did this on the laptop. Hope it's not too red. Did a quick Selective Color and Burn. Had to burn it to bring out some color. Hope you don't mind me messing with it.

 

BTW, you did a nice job on the picture taking.<div>00HBHY-30987884.thumb.jpg.6e22a2baa2c24e710be16757372e2de5.jpg</div>

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I think you're right that it's too peach, Stacy (it's a beautiful portrait, though!) I adjusted it to this by converting it to LAB in Photoshop and bumping it VERY slightly toward magenta in the A channel and yellow in the B channel.<div>00HBJa-30988884.thumb.jpg.c784573bea77c10e86216687e4008a0a.jpg</div>
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And here's B. Note that I adjusted low midtones to be more magenta and high midtones to be more yellow. Note also that these adjustments have made the dress look a little more muddy; you could fix this either by doing the color adjustment after masking, or maybe by boosting the highlights in the luminance channel in LAB.<div>00HBJi-30989084.jpg.7141ddac92238b888a3f2e34913d1ed0.jpg</div>
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Now that I blink back & forth between the version I played with and your original, it looks to my eye that the issue your version has is not "peach", but in fact a green cast. This is particularly evident in the whitish background to the left of the model's face.
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By the way, Ann's advice about "auto contrast" and sharpening is right on the money too. I have a hard time deciding between my version (with auto contrast & sharpening) and hers - Ann's is more yellow, mine is more red. I think it's a matter of taste...
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"a green cast...evident in the whitish background to the left of the model's face."

 

I can see that. And just when I'd about decided to stop paying attention to comments about colors, given that everyone says their monitor is calibrated but no one agrees.

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The image is beautiful. It's high key and the extreme lower left corner is blown-out. I wouldn't change a thing, including evaluating WB based on a background tone (which might fool you into thinking that the image is green).

 

Beautiful skin, focus on the eyes, you're there. My LaCie 321 monitor is calibrated and I am viewing with Firefox, FWIW.

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Thanks everyone for your comments and experiments- these look nice! As for the green cast- I'm not sure if it's a cast or a tree showing through her veil slightly...we were in a courtyard.

 

And I think you're probably right Jairy- I was so overthinking this last night- it's like if you look at something too long you can't see it right anymore- that's where I was :)

 

Anyway- I'll try your suggestions everyone! Thanks!

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Maybe I'm just not experienced enough yet to "get it"... but I don't see what is wrong with the original image at all. I know skin tones are tricky and we're always striving to get them "right"- sometimes a too-cool, too-warm, green or yellow color cast looks awful... just plain wrong. Sometimes, though, it looks exactly like what my eye would have seen in that light, and in this case, I don't see it as looking unflattering at all. If I did anything at all to Stacy's original, it might be a slight dodging of the eyes to take a little of the blue out of the whites, and highlight the gorgeousness of those irises. But again, just a slight dodge and nothing too overdone.

 

Like I said, reading this thread made me feel kind of stupid, because I like the first image best, peachy or not. But there's also a very personal bias inside me, I think. I'm blonde with a very fair complexion, and was advised by a lot of people to work on a tan for my own wedding. While I did expose myself to enough sun to take me from pasty to pleasantly peach, I resisted all the advice to get myself to the point that my bridal gown looked radioactive. :-P

 

Not a criticism of the other PS efforts here; you obviously all are very talented and I'm pretty sure you've all been at this much longer than I have, so I think my input may be worth slightly less than two cents, but still. I still cast my meager vote for keeping the original...

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"I like the first image best, peachy or not."

 

Me too. My comment about seeing the green had more to do with my amazement at seeing the same thing as someone else than any dissatisfaction with the original. It's really fine.

 

And yes, IMX it's quite possible to over-think and over-tweak, and after a little while nothing looks right. If there are no deadlines and income depending on them it's easy enough to get out of that loop by putting the images away for a while. Doing so under the pressure of production has got to be much more difficult.

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Is everyone evaulating this in Photoshop on a calibrated monitor? Someone claimed using Firefox on a calibrated monitor, yet Firefox will not use the sRGB profile in the file but your monitor's profile!! If we are to evaluate correctly it should be in Photoshop on a calibrated monitor.

 

Anyway, even then it's subjective. It just needs to be pleasing for Stacy, but she seemed to ask for opinions. IMO, I prefer Anne's version. The original does look a tad too pink and pasty. The added yellow and contrast/sharpness in Anne's picture make it better IMO. At the very least, it needs a tad more contrast and sharpening IMO.

 

Stacy, if this was shot in RAW, which converter did you use? Curious.

 

Bogdan

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All that matters is that it looks good IN PRINT. Just run a test print with whatever printer you

rely on for final prints, see how it turns out, and if you like it - call it a day. Frankly, printers

can't really even print the full range of colors that our monitors are able to display (unless

you have a really old monitor). This on-screen, over the internet, 300 different people

looking at the same image for slight degree changes will get you no where... except in the

crazy house. ;-)

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You're right Anne- but I like to have other people's opinions anyway :) And in the morning sun it does not look nearly as peachy to me as it did last night under the tungsten light. I'll send it for proofing and see how it looks- my printer tends to add yellow and contrast to proofs anyway...

 

Bogdan- it was shot in RAW- processed in Canon's DPP...

 

thanks again everyone :)

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