the gap is running "red" as a campaign. amazing portraits by Annie Lebowitz. i am shooting canon and have been struggling with red skin for years. anyone out there who can help me turn red skin into brown. here's the link to the images at the gap site. it's a dissolve of several images. i'm specifically asking about the skin on christie turlington. please help.

http://www.gap.com/... .../home.do?cid=16591&mlink=5058,629777,2&clink=629777

sorry but the link that I posted is not working. here's one that will work. just click on the red box that says "can clothes change the world".

http://www.gap.com

Selective color. I could show you, just post an image that you got red skin and I'll do it step by step

Here's the address:

http://www.georgedisario.com/test/060322_191.jpg

Thank you in advance for your kindness.

George

www.georgedisario.com

It looks like sharpening and adding texture to sections of the images. Really stunning work. Also adding a sky in from another image - more dramatic.

The image of the man looks like it has been blurred perhaps with a lens blur so that the eye is drawn to the sharper face.

http://www.georgedisario.com/test/060322_191.jpg

forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I think that the skin is not post pro...The ligting os important...I've been looking around the net and seeing others that use continuouse lighting...Maybe there is abit more yellow int these lights???? maybe the tehcnique is in keeping lighting good and not too bright...I see on some of these models that the skin treatment in post pro is close to zero...maybe shellby can comment on the post pro...I don't see anything...

Have you tried using a copied picture with overlay? Maybe it sounds to ease, maybe it is,but...But i think the terms of red and brown skin is more in the lighting technique then post pro...

Hope my tip is helpful...


Talk to some photo shops in your hometown and ask about different bulbs that gives different colour values without being to revealing or something...I know there is a flash bulb called warm white or summer white...


Gerry

hi george and welcome to RetouchPRO.

sorry, i dont know which one of those is ms. turlington. but the overall effect on a lot of those images seems to be a bronzing or browning like you're talking about... as if the person had been out in the sun for quite a while on a regular basis.

so, changing reds to browns shldnt be that difficult. you select out the parts you want to change and use tools like 'color balance' and 'hue/saturation' on adjustment layers.

in the hue/sat layer i moved the reds slightly towards the yellows and the yellows slightly towards the reds. i desaturated a tiny bit on the yellows and lowered the brightness quite a bit.

on the color balance, i actually added more red, but somewhat compensated by adding a bit of greens. the blues were adjusted a tiny bit up and down depending on whether i was working with shadows, midtones or highlights.

skin is mostly reds and yellows. and the browns fall between reds and yellows. so, moving the yellows closer to red and red closer to yellow and then darkening seemed to be the way to go.

now, not knowing exactly the tone and shade you want, my attached is probably not exactly what you want, but it moved at least in the right direction, i believe. let me know if that's so or not.

You gave me tons of good info. Your attemt at grounding my red is very strong. I will give it a try. The truth is that I've spent the day back at ground zero. Calibrated my monitor (long overdue). Then to the cameras and their custom color parameters. Worked with a new raw processor. So much I didn't realize till today. Dusted off and used my color meter. Results are in and my skin images are now dead on. Whew, what a go. Got an important shoot this coming tuesday and I was about to take a heart attack.

Got to give my heart felt thanks to each of you that took the time and effort to give me a hand.

excellent. glad i could help and hope your shoot goes well :)

You gave me tons of good info. Your attemt at grounding my red is very strong. I will give it a try. The truth is that I've spent the day back at ground zero. Calibrated my monitor (long overdue). Then to the cameras and their custom color parameters. Worked with a new raw processor. So much I didn't realize till today. Dusted off and used my color meter. Results are in and my skin images are now dead on. Whew, what a go. Got an important shoot this coming tuesday and I was about to take a heart attack.

Got to give my heart felt thanks to each of you that took the time and effort to give me a hand.


Having same problem with Canon. Was Nikon for 20 years for film, then switched to Canon for digital (long story).

What should I set my camera on (color temp) for studio work to hopefully help get more neutral tones. Will it help using an Expo Disk?

The problem is not consistent. I really prefer to get rid of it.

Will try your post production (raw) suggestions but wondering any other exact things I can do to minimize the problem in camera.

Thanks much!

I also shoot Canon. You're best bet for proper color balance is to use a tool to set white balance. I use Whibal, but you can use the Expodisc, a gray card or whatever you want. Here's the info on Whibal:

http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/whibal/index.html

And a little video explaining it's use:

http://pictureflow.fileburst.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/index.html

--
Pam
http://www.pbase.com/pam_r
'art is working on something 'til you like it...then leaving it that way'

I was looking through her entire website and not just the one image.

If you shoot in RAW then you can control the white balance afterwards in Adobe Camera Raw.

Hi everyone and thanks again for all the help. This is just a followup to say that I have done some more testing and thinking and the info is posted here:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/470098/3

The monitor I'm at has no color calibration, but you can get a sense of how the color(s) can balance. I've used adjustment layers.

You can also try placing a blank layer above the image fill with BROWN and set the layer mode to hue or color...

Lasa