First I want to say thank you to all the wonderful people at this site who have helped over time. I love the cooperation and the willingness to give.

Now my situation. When I take photos of myself or any light skin colored person, I end up with yellow skin such as my attachments. I figured some of that yellow in my nephews picture is because he has high yellow content in his skin, but this is too much. IF nothing can be done about the yellow skin, how can I tone it down so it's not so bright? One photo is me and the other is my nephew.

I did this very quickly and had to guess as I don't have an actual sample of your skin tone so I'm sure you'll do a much better job. :)

For your picture I simply added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. From the Edit pull down menu I selected yellows and applied the following settings: Hue -29, Saturation -38, Lightness -14.

For your nephew I added a Selective Color adjustment layer and from the pull down menu selected yellows again with the following settings: -9%, +5%, -100%, +23%. I then applied a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer exactly like the one I used on your picture. I'm not totally pleased with how your nephew turned out and I'm sure some more fiddling would help.

Hope this helps. :)

Hi, Shuga
The biggest problem I see is you are using an undiffused camera flash. It is burning out a large part of your skin and making your pictures look flat. I don't know what camera and flash you are using but any flash will benefit by using something to diffuse and soften the light. Or try bouncing the light off of the ceiling or a white card or...

There are commercial products available for the professional units but you can make one by cutting up a plastic milk carton or... I have even used a white hankie in a pinch. Samples are below. Yes, I use those. I'm a cheap sucker and they are easy to pack. Besides, no one wants to steal them.
Moving the flash away from the camera so it is not straight on would help alot also.

Hi QueenBrownSuga.....

I've posted your original with 2 versions of the same picture...... it's a little hard for me to feel sympathy for you because I purposely buy makeup with more yellow in it since I think it's prettier than my pink skin....... but anyway....

I just gave quick descriptions on the photos but if you'd like more info. I'll be happy to post the actual steps...... you do have gorgeous skin!

oxoxo
Beth

Hey Kerry....... I really liked the way yours turned out........ I'm going to play around with your method !

oxoxo
Beth

Beth,

LOL, you took the words right out of my mouth. I looked at yours and said, ohh, I want to try her method. :)

Shuga, I don't know if these are close to the real skin tones, but they are less yellow. I applied a hue/saturation layer to both images and then toned down the blown highlights.
Regards, Murray

Hey shuga........ are you using Photoshop or some photo editing software or are you talking about something that you can adjust with your camera?

Just thought to ask that to make sure....... anyway..... on your nephew I just did Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer then like Kerry I went to Layers > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation and I boosted the saturation......

Then on that boosted layer I went to Image > Adjustments > Photo Filters and choose Blue and played with the opacity slider before clicking, OK....

That was all for him....

Beth

Murray..... yours look great, too....... and seems like a quick method with great results!

Hey Kerry...... I did want to say I cheated on the second pic because I painted on a blank layer with my brush in overlay mode to tone down highlights then blurred it and darkened it with a Hue/Sat adjustment ...... hence the smoothing.......

And on the third one after the Color Balance adjustment (no painting on blank layer on this one) I did a sort of mini de-grunge for skin softening...... I'm really loving using it too, even though I went a little too smooth...... it's highly adjustable for the different areas of the face with differing pore sizes.......

oxoxo
Beth

Hi, there!

I had a go, too. :)

I selected the luminosity [ ctrl + shift + Alt + ~ ], and pasted it to a new layer. I then blurred it quite heavily, and used a layer mask to hide some of the effect with a soft black brush. I copied that again, and then ran variations on that layer to take out some of the yellow and darkened it a bit. I also adjusted the layer opacity and fill, to get a softer mix.

I used the burn tool on your lips a bit, too, because they grew too light.


Not perfect; but not bad, either. :)

Pepperspray...... that looks great..... and I'm guessing the softness comes from the blurring of the luminosity layer??? I keep forgetting to even try things like that.......

Beth

Thanks! I've been a bit shy to jump in with my efforts so far, but your comment is very encouraging. :D

And yes, you were right - I remembered reading a tutorial about blurring the lightness and when I saw this image, I thought I'd try it. It's certainly an excellent one to add to the toolbox - and you don't even need to change to LAB mode. :)

Pepperspray...Wow, you did fabulous. I can't say I understand the process you used, but I sure would like to understand.

Solitear...Ditto WOW. I love both of the changes you made. I would love it if you would break it down for me how you did them. I use Paint Shop Pro X to edit my photos so hopefully I can make sense out of the steps you used (assuming you use Photoshop or something else). And BTW thanks for the compliment.

JBurt...I have a Sony DSC-W7 Cybershot, so for this camera your suggestions won't work. However, I will be upgrading to the Sony DSC-R1. So, thank you for your suggestions and I will use them. What kind of Camera do you have?

Thanks everyone for you help. It was much appreciated.

God Bless

Cheers, QueenBrownShuga. :)

I don't know the first thing about Paint Shop Pro, sorry. I use Photoshop CS2. :(

If I could afford Photoshop CS2, I would make the switch. But thanks anyway. :(

Thanks Shuga...... here are the steps for the second pic.... I use Photoshop .....

1. Used the color sample tool and clicked on the most yellow part of the skin
this should now be your foreground color.

2. Create a new blank layer over your picture and go Edit > Fill > Foreground Color (leaving blend mode here to normal and 100% opacity) don't preserve transparency, click OK

3. On this layer (which should be a solid yellow/ skin color) do a Ctrl + I to inverse that color (now should be a solid dark blue color)

4. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light and adjust opacity

5. I wanted to get rid of some of the highlights so I created a new blank layer over this and painted with my brush in Overlay mode at 27% opacity sampling often by Alt + clicking which changes your paint color quickly.

6. After covering highlighted areas with paint I went Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to completely smooth any streaking.... your colors will probably be too bright so .....

7. Go to Layers > Adjustments > Hue/Sat and lower the lightness slider to darken the color, click OK

8. In layers palette adj. the opacity and use the eraser to clean up any "overspray" from the blurring.....

9. Flattened the image and that's it !

oxoox
Beth

Sorry this is so long but thought it would be cleaner to break them up in separate posts....... this is for the third picture (not the one of your nephew)

1. Went to Layers > Adjustments > Color Balance and clicked on Midtones

2. Pushed the slider towards the color blue until happy with color, clicked Ok

3. Then I did a skin de-grunge (sounds gross but smoothes skin in a natural way) tutorial written by a RetouchPRO pro byRo found below:

The Quick Degrunge Technique
(at long last)

1) Make a duplicate layer;

2) Open the Gaussian blur filter and change the radius until the grunge just becomes invisible. Be careful here, getting the radius right is very important. Note the radius and cancel the filter;

3) Apply the High-pass filter at the radius you just noted down;

4) Apply the Gaussian blur on this layer at 1/3 of the radius;

5) Invert the layer (<Ctrl><I>), set the blending to Linear Light and the opacity to 50%;

6) Apply a Hide-all mask and paint white where you want to degrunge.

That's it.......... (my husband had to tell me that in step 4 above re: 1/3 of the radius just meant that I multiplied whatever number I used for the High-pass radius by .33) GAaaaaahhhh........ so embarrassing ......

That's what I love about this forum...... so many talented, generous people to learn from......

oxoxox
Beth

Photoshop. Kraelin (Craig) is a Paint Shop Pro pro and could probably translate - others here are, too...... he's just the first that came to mind and a dear heart!

Assuming that the shirt is red (not violet), I used the color picker and found that the color was around 30% too green and 40% too blue, so I used the channel mixer (on duplicate layer) and adjusted the opacities down on the Green and Blue channels accordingly. I set the resulting layer to Hue and flattened. It looks like your camera is amplifying the greens and blues more then it should (or attenuating the red depending on your perspective). :)

Hey Ikroll...... when you say you used the color picker..... were you judging the numbers by a sort of formula???? Your method is new territory for me but, judging by your results, I'd really like to learn it since the results are excellent !! Even if you could just point me in some direction I'd appreciate it...

Beth

I found this link of Paint Shop Pro retouching techniques: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/paintshoptutorialsretouch/

Hope that helps. :)

Here's my take on this.

I used skin by the numbers technique from http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=191 (subscription)

The technique uses CYMK and Curves to adjust skin color. See attached scren print.

1. Use Color Sample tool to select the cheek (stay away from the shiny portion).
2. In the Info palette change to CYMK for the selected color cample.
3. Bring up the Curves layer.
4. Select the RGB channel in Curves. Click on the selected Color Sample portion of the skin will show you where on the Curves graph to start. Keep an eye on the Info palette. Adjust K to a value of 0.
5. Select Blue Channel in Curves, adjust Yellow so that its value is close to Magenta and slightly higher (1 to 2 value)
6. Select Red Channel in Curves and adjust Cyan to a value about 20%-33% of Yellow or Magenta.
7. Click OK in Curves.

So basically the formula is:
K= 0
Y= M with Y slightly higher
C= 1/5 - 1/3 of Y or M

This has worked well for me. Takes the guess work out for a "by the number" kind of guy like myself.

Best Regards,

Dan

Dan...... what an awesome job you did..... not only the results you got but you gave very clear step by step instructions, too..... I want to try this myself.....

I tend to be one who just 'eyeballs' the colors; however, the longer I sit and look at something I'm working on the more distorted those colors become.... sometimes shockingly so....... I like knowing there's somewhat of a formula for those things it's just the first time I've seen it presented so well..... thank you!

Beth

Hey Ikroll...... when you say you used the color picker..... were you judging the numbers by a sort of formula???? Your method is new territory for me but, judging by your results, I'd really like to learn it since the results are excellent !! Even if you could just point me in some direction I'd appreciate it...

Beth

I'm a feeler when it comes to things like this. I used color picker on a saturated area on the shirt. Assumed it was pure red and anything outside of that (blue and green) I negatively compensated by around that amount; pure feel. I tend to try to recreate the wheel when it comes to retouching, so, even though someone else may have come up with this method, I have no idea who. Still not perfect since I ended up setting the adjusted layer to Hue to get the result, but who says there is not more then one way to skin a cat. :)

Wow......OK....... sort of like my cheesy way of sampling the offending color cast and filling a new blank layer with it then inverting it and setting the blend mode to soft light....... I mean...... mine is hugely global and anyone or anything in the shot is going to get a dose of it.......

Yours really is a feel thing and more fine tuned than my approach..... I'm still going to play around with what you've written but, knowing me, I'll have to take a bunch of breaks or wind up with everything all out of whack.....

Too bad there hasn't been some photo that's been created to 'cleanse the palette' so to speak when working with colors for extended periods of time.....like sniffing coffee beans between smelling perfume samples....... hey.... now that's an idea......

Thanks for the info.

oxoxo
Beth