Hello
What does the retouchers in this forum say about one of my first attempts in beauty retouching ? Any hints or suggestions especially regarding colors ?
Regards,
Thomas

overall image has a red cast to it, especially on her skin tone, try desaturating her skin a little than adjusting the color.

lately i've been a big fan of very desaturated colors within the images i work with, just what i'm liking at the moment.

if I only desaturate the images the skin looks greenish and unhealthful
for example look at the skin on the attached image. The color looks natural(orange / brown). Has anybody some informations about skin colors and the gradation curve ?

Regards,
Thomas

you can desaturate the skin...then apply a new curve using the same mask to push the skin tone in whatever direction you want. i.e. redish, or more yellowish, darker lighter.

overall image has a red cast to it, especially on her skin tone, try desaturating her skin a little than adjusting the color.

lately i've been a big fan of very desaturated colors within the images i work with, just what i'm liking at the moment.

I've been noticing references to colours on this board and have to ask--is it possible the colours appear too rich--not rich enough--too green, red, etc. due to monitor calibration differences amongst us?

This image does not appear too red on my monitor. However, I DO notice a difference between programmes I use and how they display on my monitor.

If I use PhotoImact post-procesing an image and love the result, then view it in PS6, the same image looks washed out.

Could the problem be some mis-calibration of either of my programme preferences?

Maureen :)

the arguement/discussion over skin color is an old one. and yes, monitor calibration does play a part. so do color profiles, which is probably why you're seeing differences between the two programs, maureen. some programs display natively in sRGB, others in a different profile. this can make a difference.

but aside from calibration and profiles, you also have the lighting within the image and that can make a huge difference as well. dark lighting will tend to show reds more. fllorescent will show a different way and incandescant and natural sunlight yet other ways. and this is color i'm talking about, not just brights and darks.

if you look at the new fad, HDRI environment lighting, you'll notice that programs using this will tend to come with different 'environments' for use to filter the lighting of an image. these can be quite dramatic changes, affecting both the lights and darks and the coloration.

so, the upshot here is, your image is fine as far as the skin color. lighting and enviroment would easily account for the colors you've used. and, it looks fine on my monitor. yes, it's a touch on the red side, but that, to me, is natural with that lighting. in fact, when i frame just the facial skin, there's quite a bit of yellow in there.