Skin Tones

[teagan_parker]

<p>I seem to be having a difficult time getting skin tones right. I've tried the icorrect portrait, the Chroma white balance, the free presets for Lightroom, and can't seem to get a natural skin tone. I just shot a wedding last week (in Michigan), so my bride isn't tan at all but I still think her skin color should be more brown. If I warm it up at all her hair turns too yellow. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Is there any great white balance plug-in that works great?</p>

<p> </p>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>Try looking at the book:<br />"Skin" <br /> by <br /> Lee Varis</p>

<p>I find making photographs in RAW helps to attain proper color correction.</p>

[teagan_parker]

<p>I shoot in RAW, I'm having a hard time trying to attach the picture, I think I have to post a new thread.</p>

[teagan_parker]

<p>The image.</p><div></div>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>If you have jpegs then try this:<br>

Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels.<br>

In Levels click on blue, then go to the middle control until you get to around 85 to 90. <br>

Then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.<br>

In Hue/Saturation click on red channel.<br>

Use the slider and lower it to -5 to 07.<br>

Does that help?</p>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>Here is where I applied the above.</p>

<div></div>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>Here I smoothed her skin a little bit and ran an action to give her the glow.<br /> There are other things I'd recommend but it depends on you and your client.<br /> Hope this helps you.</p><div></div>

[melissa_v2]

<p>Thanks Bill, that really helped me!</p>

[teagan_parker]

<p>Thanks for the input. Toning down the saturation by -5 on my raw files in Lightroom seems to have helped.</p>

[art_tatum]

<p>If you look at her shoulder (normal tone) versus her face (flushed pink) I think you are looking at make up. However I have no solution just an observation.</p>

[William Michael]

<p><em><strong>"I think you are looking at make up. "</strong></em><br>

Ditto that was my first thought also.</p>

<p>WW</p>

[Bill C]

<p>Leah, the skin tones are most definitely bluish, or in different words, lacking in yellow. With Bill Clark's method, I'd go even further than he did.</p>

<p>My preferred way would be with "curves", in Photoshop. Select the blue channel, then click in an adjustment point (anywhere on the curve). Once a point has been set, go to the input/output boxes, then try roughly input= 180, output = 160. Assuming you are in sRGB (which you are), this will be very close. By the way, do you have Photoshop? Or just Lightroom?</p>

<p>Might be makeup, but doesn't matter, you still want to fix it. I don't think this was as simple as white balance, because I had to bend one of the curves. My guess would be that you accidentally bent one of the color responses while in Lightroom, but just a guess. </p>

[Bill C]

<p>Whoops, I didn't read all of Bill Clark's adjustment procedure. I meant that in the blue "Levels" adjustment, I'd go further, to about 0.78, then that's all. I would stop there, and would NOT desaturate the red.</p>

[g.e._masana]

<p>First off, a big kudos to you for even realizing that skin tones are something to think about... I see so many blog posts of shots where the skin tones are all over the place and you know those brides are not magenta skinned.<br>

You assessed correctly that you need more yellow. You may know that there actually is a recipe of sorts when it comes to skin. Caucasian calls for equal to a bit more yellow then magenta and way less cyan then magenta depending on taste.<br>

In LR, you may use an adjustment brush to paint in color and that should take care of getting it where you want it. I find more control over the process in Photoshop, both in the brush control and in the exact degree of hue, via curves or selective color, painting it in via a layer mask if you need to. As per the attached.<br>

Then getting the additional red out of her cheeks: that's done with a hue & saturation adjustment.</p><div></div>

[teagan_parker]

<p>I have both Lightroom and Photoshop. I was hoping to get the skin tones right in Lightroom before I do the fun stuff in Photoshop. I've been messing around with the different techniques above and still need some tweaking.</p>

[teagan_parker]

<p>Using all of the techniques and trial and error here's hopefully what might be the finished product. Any advice is still greatly appreciated if I'm way off base, too yellow now? too orange? I think my retnas are color saturated from looking at it too long :)</p><div></div>

[g.e._masana]

<p>Still appears magenta-cast to me. Find some images of skin tones to use as role models and keep them handy to compare. Skin tones are often adjusted by commercial and fashion photographers, skim their sites for image ideals. If your eyes get tired working on images, take time off to come back refreshed.</p>

[Bill C]

<p>No, not too yellow; still lacking it. You've come about halfway to where I originally (and still do) suggested.</p>

<p>Here's what I see now: flesh highlights have a distinct, cool tone (meaning bluish). When you get into the rosy cheeks, it's still too blue, but this is now compounded by a bit of reddishness added in. This blue and red mixed is exactly what G.E.Masana notes, magenta.</p>

<p>The fix, via curves, is not so easy anymore. My opinion, the first thing I said is still the best. Next, I like G.E.'s posted sample, except that I think desaturating the red removed to much "rosiness" from her cheeks. But this is a fine point, not worth getting finicky about. I'd be happy, as a customer, to get images of that quality.</p>

[markonestudios]

I haven't read all the other posts, only skimmed through. This is how I'd do it, 'quick and dirty'... In PS, use a new colour balance layer. Add some yellow in the midtones using the slider so it more or less matches the shoulder tone. Mask out the shoulder. Here's my attempt. 10 seconds flat<div></div>

[zach_gray1]

<p>Hey! I know this is a tad late, but if you want to avoid having to guess at skin tones after the fact, you can simply custom white balance your camera before the shot and nail it every time. Just get an Expo Disk and it will change your life! Spending time in Post-Production on skin tones is like pulling teeth. The only thing you need to have is the proper white balance and you can capture that with an Expo Disk before the shot. It takes about 1 second to do and saves you tons of time on the tail end.</p>

<p>For more info on how we shoot IN-CAMERA, check out our workshops site!

<p>-Zach & Jody Gray</p>

[teagan_parker]

<p>Hi Zach...thanks for the input. I try to use the digital calibration target (from Ed Pierce) as much as I can....I think I need to use it more throughout a shoot because the color of the lights changes so much once they've been on for awhile. Thanks for the response.</p>