Skin colour in CMYK

[igord]

I would like to set the colour of the skin separately, what values do

you set in CMYK for natural looking skin? When the rest of the photo is fine,

skin doesn't match the proper CMYK values for blacks, whites, etc.

Thanks for help.

[pico]

May I ask why you are saving in CMYK? If you are printing to a common ink-jet printer, it will

re-render the colors anyway.

[igord]

Forgot to mention that printing is in CMYK.

[doug_axford1]

You are far better to correct in RGB, then convert to CMYK. Make sure that your CMYK preferrences are set correctly, otherwise skin will appear too magenta on your screen, I suspect that is your problem. If you try to correct in CMYK if not set correctly, your finished product will be green skin. Safer to convert after corrections.

 

Asking for 'normal' skin values is not worthwhile, they are all different. Also, I suspect that your conversion is SWOP, which will alter your blacks and whites for the press. You cannot print pure blacks and whites on a press like you can on a photo printer.

 

Doug

[paul a. roid]

for caucasian skin the yellow should be 5%-10% higher than the magenta value, cyan should

<br>be 1/3 of the average of m&y. black should show in shadow areas only.<p>

asian skin naturally has higher y values and black skin can have more m, c and k

[igord]

Doug, I used to correct my photos for calendars, mags etc. and they are let's say OK. But when I look at the top productions, skin has very similar colour, so I suspect some dtp guys or retouchers has receipes for natural looking skin or tanned skin. So what I plan to do is to isolate the skin and correct it with different values than the rest of the photo.

Markus, thanks for suggestion.

[morocco]

try this link and see if it helps: http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone

[jautey]

Such a simple with a no real simple answer.

 

A: get from printer the following: their preferred CMYK color space and their dot gain numbers. Have them send you the color space profile if you don't have it and put the file in the proper folder (where depends on your operating system).

B: Load the color profile in the CMYK window in Working Space section in the Color Setting Menu.

C: Enter the dot gain number in the dot gain window in the Working Space section in the Color Setting Menu.

D: Either create a test file or get one from the printers and run a test print so you calibrate your monitor to the presses, make sure your monitor calibrated.

E: Repeat D until you get it.

 

Now you can begin working on images for print.

 

There are at two ways to go about this. Neither is better, just different.

 

One is as Doug said to work in RGB the other is to work in Proof Colors. Don't begin work in CMYK.

Proof Colors is like seeing the photos as CMYK, but working on like its in RGB.

Either way you'll have to make the conversion to CMYK later.

 

Getting skin tones right is mostly art, not science. Sure you can use percentages but they don't get you very far if it's not a well exposed, straight studio shot.

 

Everyone is going to have a different way to work on skin colors, instead of labeling all the different ways, I'll tell you about some of the tools to use.

 

I'll assume you?re at least knowledgeable in Photoshop, if not proficient.

 

Selective Color is good for selecting particular colors and making wide adjustments.

Replace Color is good for selecting very specific colors and making subtle adjustments.

Color Balance is good for balancing colors with their complimentary color.

Hue/Saturation is good for adding lots of color (saturation) or shifting the hues of particular colors. Its probably the most over and misused tool in Photoshop, next to the dodge/burn tool.

 

Those are just some of the tools.

 

No matter what you do, it will be very likely you'll want to make some adjustments once you've converted the photo to CMYK. In that case Selective and Replace color work best. Also by going into the channels window and selecting individual color channels and either adding or subtracting information (dodge, burn or paint) you nudge colors.

 

No matter what you do there will be some color loss and radical shifts when you make the conversion. Some of the brighter colors clipped and others will get flat. Thats the nature of going from the relatively large RGB gamut to the rather small CMYK gamut. Getting the colors back is the fun part.

 

There is whole lot more to go over, so email me if you have further questions.

 

On a side note, you'll discover quickly that each 4-color process behaves differently when the ink meets paper. And only experience will serve you in perfecting your process. Presses are like people and cars; each behaves a little differently.

[howard_owen]

Correcting skin tones in CMYK is an excellent idea. There are, in fact, numerous color corrections that can be accomplished in CMYK (or LAB) that simply cannot be duplicated in RGB. However, for skin, there is no need to *convert* to CMYK, you can just use the Info Palette with a CMYK readout. Here is a little post from Kevin Breckenridge on the percentages:

 

Matching skin tones has driven many scanner operators into retirement.

 

There is no magic formula or CMYK breakdown, but here are some general rules that have worked for me over the years.

 

First let me state the obvious, every person has a unique skin tone color, even within specific ethnic groups the variety is limitless. Unfortunately CMYK, and offset printing only allows us a fraction of choices, and equally unfair you are often forced to stereotype people with specific CMYK break downs to trigger those every present memory colors hard wired in our brains.

 

Take a look around the room, Caucasian, Asian, African American, Hispanic, East Indian, and Native American, all in reality don't have nearly the saturation of color we see in photographs and publications. So we have to cheat a little to give these images some punch, after all who wants a bunch of pasty smiling people on the cover of their magazine anyway!

 

A good rule of thumb for most skin tones is to have the magenta trail the yellow and the cyan trail the magenta, very little black even in African American people. Black should only serve to add density to a prominent shadow areas, if you have too much it will neutralize what color you have when it hits the press, those pressman always run up the Black so the text looks sharp.

 

Here come the stereotypical portion of color correcting skin tones:

 

When I set up a scan for Caucasian people the Magenta trails the Yellow slightly and the Cyan in less than half of the Magenta.

 

If I sample a quarter tone area the CMYK might look like this: Cyan: 10 Magenta: 25 Yellow: 30 Black: 0

 

Asian people get a little more of everything plus a slightly higher separation between the Magenta and Yellow.

 

If I sample a quarter tone - mid tone area the CMYK might look like this: Cyan: 15 Magenta: 35 Yellow: 45 Black: 0

 

African Americans and people with darker skin tones get a slightly warmer treatment with enough cyan to keep it from going to red on press.

 

If I sample a mid tone area the CMYK might look like this: Cyan: 25 Magenta: 47 Yellow: 55 Black: 5

 

The big trick is to mix it up a bit, I don't shoot for these numbers every time, I like to ensure the scan prints as close to the original as possible after all that's what a scanner operator gets paid to do, but if I have some creative license or the photo has poor color and overexposed, I apply these guidelines. I also watch the 3 quarter tones and shadow areas very closely, making sure they don't over saturate and become dominant. The skin tones should have a consistent Hue regardless of the values from highlight to mid tone to shadow. Don't make the highlight Yellow, the mid tone Brown and the shadow Red.

[igord]

Bill - thanks for the link, it's very helpful.

Eric - your tips are great - I will email you for sure ;)

Howard - this is exactly what I would like to master!

[edward_wojciechowski]

Igor;

I've been reading some on this subject lately. I agree there is no short answer, but this book by Lee Varis ("The Color Of Skin") is a great help. I highly reccommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/047004733X?tag=giftfella-20&camp=14573&creative=

327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=047004733X&adid=05FFKDKCE6A1B270PSNE&

 

Ed Woj.

[transoptic]

Yeah I was gonna suggest that smugmug link.

 

It's really helped me.

Now I do all color corrections in LAB mode (I feel it's way superior)

 

but I still check the CMYK values afterward just to be sure my magentas aren't higher than my eye sees them.