Process This Photo For Me Please

[eddie g]

I can't get this one right. I've printed it 8 times now. It's not

the printer because other prints look fine before and after printing

this one. I just can't fool with photoshop cs2 anymore on this

image. Please try your hand at processing this image to obtain the

most natural skin tone...meaning without the pinkish or redish

tone. This was shot in raw with the only editing being the crop and

resize for this post, then saved as jpg. Also, I'd love to know

what you did so please post (eg. cyan-mid +2, cyan-high +4, Yellow-

shadow + 3, yellow-mid +5, ecetera)<div></div>

[bill_fouche]

Here's my crack at it, for what it's worth. Here's what I did: (1) I assumed the wall was neutral grey, used "curves" to adjust the R, G, and B channels separately so that the wall had equal quantities of each at all luminosities. (2) Did a global levels adjustment to darken the black point and lighten the white point. (3) Reduced global saturation to taste (by quite a bit). (4) Applied a "warming" color filter adjusted to around 18% or so. Not sure this is what you're after, but, if you'll email me, I'd be happy to send you the "PSD" file so you can see the settings for various layers.

[mendel_leisk]

Eddie, I think your version looks neutral, as is.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Have you tried pulling the blue channel back some in the

midrange using the curves tool?

 

You'll lose neutrality on the wall because the kid's temple region

is on the same tonal range as the wall.

 

Neutrality is an adaptive experience influenced by surround

conditions. Not an R=G=B by the numbers thing.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Pulled back the blue a bit in the middle of the curve.

[bill_t__new_mexico_]

Here's an image that prints very nice kid flesh tones using straight ICM profiles.

 

http://www.gballard.net/nca.html#getagoodfile

 

Use the eyedropper tool to read the RGB values from this "perfect" example, then play with color balance and Hue & Saturation in the various color channels on your original. Try to match your flesh tones to the example. The example is still a bit yellow IMHO, but definitely in the ballpark.

 

Dunno the exposure on your original. If it's too underexposed it can be difficult to manipulate colors very much. In that case you might get a better results if you first bump up the contrast and saturation, then tweak the color.

[jpb]

it would be good if you posted the master file instead of the 64k version.

[jpb]

however, i shoud also say that, at least on my monitor, your version looks really nice. Bill did a nice job on the skin, too, but the background is a bit desaturated from my taste.

[Ian Taylor]

maybe?<div></div>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

I measure from the original in the pink portion of the babies

forehead above the left eyebrow 190,151,153rgb. Very close to

neutral.

 

No way that can look correct. No human, not even an albino can

have that kind of color unless they were sunburn.

[bill_fouche]

OK, I gave it another try. Same as before except that the "red" curve was adjusted downward just in the highlight range, by quite a bit, and the "warming" filter was turned up to about 27%. I like this much better. Keeps the saturation in the tree and clothing, but seems to correct the skin.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Bill,

 

Your RGB readings in the baby's forehead between the

eyebrowse are getting closer to neutral=180,163,161 in sRGB

space.

 

You may need to check your monitor calibration. The image is

very desaturated.

[roger_kallet]

Eddie,

 

I agree with Mendel, but on a broader scale. I think the skin tones look great. If you were to show that picture to a group of non-PS savvy folks, Aunts, Uncles, neighbors, et al, you would hear nothing but compliments. I could understand your concern if the skin tones were a sickly green, but hey, these are just a couple of rather good looking kids.

 

Roger

[patricklavoie]

just add a bit of yellow and your done...did i win something for my simple solution ; )

[karl_knize]

Eddie-- On my monitor the back wall looked a tad green, and the kids faces a tad

magenta. Overall not too bad. First, I adjusted color balance>shadows and

neutralized the wall +5 magenta. Then, I made a quick selection with the lasoo

around the faces, and adjusted Hue/Sat +10 and +10. Then, I went back to color

balance and adjusted highlights +4 G. This seems to clean up a lot of the pink

without getting green shadow on the faces and on the back wall.

[karl_knize]

Hmmm... pixel count on this is 500, wonder why the shot didn't display? another try.<div></div>

[gary m]

I vote for Tim's solution. His attempt looked the most natural on my monitor.

[BrettPrucha]

Another vote for Tim's solution.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

I don't know what Karl did, maybe selective color, but he

maintained neutrality in the wall while injecting a little yellow in

the fleshtones.

 

I think Karl takes this one. The interesting thing about this little

excersise is the surprising amount of varying results from

everyone.

 

It either says there's more issues about monitor calibration

among the public at large than I thought or a wide range of taste

in color. I'm not sure which.

 

Thanks, Eddie, for posting. I learned something new.

[karl_knize]

I shoot professionally, almost all dig. now for ad work and the occasional wedding or full

frontal nude (pro bono!), and one amazing thing to me is that the system of capture,

delivery and production works as well as it does-- which isn't to say perfectly. As an

example, I have two Mac's in my house, a G4 dual for editing and an Emac for web and kid

use. Both the Viewsonic on the G4 and Emac monitors were recently calibrated with the

same device, in about the same lighting conditions. but the Emac monior shows this image

lighter and with a little less contrast. (I'm on the Emac now.)The overall color balance is

still accurate though.

 

Perhaps I rushed the explanation of my process a bit, but I did a global correction in color

balance >shadows to neutralize the wall, I could have selected the wall but it was too

much work for me for a demo. In so doing the kids faces went even more magenta, so I

selectd the faces with the lasoo and used hue/saturation to neutralize and pump up the

saturation, which I felt was a bit weak. When the shadows on the faces looked neutral

there was still a little excess pink in the brighter areas, so I used color balance>highlight

to add a little green without getting into the shadows.

 

One thing I've learned about available /mixed lighting is how often there's color crossover

from highlight to shadow on faces, and more often than not a global CC of the faces

leaves you with green, cyan, magenta, etc. shadows in eye sockets, etc. Yuk.

[larry_tseng]

Just thought I'd give it a try to see what happens. Maybe this version is still too pink, or saturated, or something...

 

--Larry

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Larry, yours is more rich and dramatic. I like the way you brought

out the tree shadows.

 

Wonder what Eddie thinks? He could say which one is more

accurate and/or more pleasing since he was there. No one

knows if that wall is painted a warm gray.

 

I've seen this neutral balance with fleshtones going red issue

with Raw converter's misreading the incamera's white point as

illustrated on this page...

 

http://www.sphoto.com/techinfo/rawconverters/pages/whitebalance2.htm

 

Wonder if it applies here. You still have to do some processing

on your own. It's never a simple one click on the neutral

eyedropper tool and you're done. You start out with warm

fleshtones but as soon as you click what's suppose to be

neutral, the fleshtones suffer.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

OK, I'll try again...<a

href="http://www.sphoto.com/techinfo/rawconverters/pages/white

balance2.htm">Raw White Balance</a>

[zhouer]

Well since discussion has moved on to WhiteBalance I can't help but submit this one. Curious about any comments and also if you are assessing with Photoshop (Color Managedment On/Off), or browser, which browser, etc.

 

I basically took an incandescent approach, masked off the kids and neutralized about eight points randomly selected here and there for their near neutral numerical appearance in Photoshop. The natural light shot allows for a number of colour casts refracting off of different objects so I tried to leave those casts inherent to the original. I also took the approach these kids do not have tans and at least one month of winter presents a less warm approach to their skin tones as compared to the healthy pink or warmish yellow of ProPhoto's Target Tiff examples used in gballard's website.

 

This is a blind edit (riding a bus early morning) under changing light conditions, so I made a lot of assumptions about what others may be viewing as a starting point.

 

Cheers...and huitoujian

jimage01.jpg

[zhouer]

Addendum:

 

Forgot to add I don't think mine is correct. It is highly unlikely the wall is neutral grey. The warmer example preceeding this is more likely an accurate representation of warm, low kelvin light cast on an underexposed, neutral white cream wall. ;0)