I'm really poor at addressing the problems with skin tone that seem so common at least with average or inexpensive point and shoot cameras in poor lighting conditions. Here's a picture I'm trying to retouch right now (it's masked the skin tone only right now). The tone (especially face) is almost rosy -- it looks pinkish, purplish, almost like it is irritated. I would like it to have a "healthy" summer glow since it is a beach picture.

Can anyone help me out? I understand skin tones are tough and that to really know how to work with them I'll have to get a book on retouching and some skin tone swatches/table of colors or something. However, I'd really appreciate any quick advice for this particular picture right now.

I tried fiddling with curves but haven't been able to get any kind of results.

I used a selective adj layer and toned down red and magenta, also added a little yellow to the whites.

That looks a lot better. Thanks, I'm new so I didn't even know about selective color adjustment layers.

How would I go about trying to make the skin look like it has more melanin in it also? How do I "bronze" it/give it a "tan"/make it look less pale?

Also, can you tell me how to use this same mask in the new selective color adjustment layer? I would like to only adjust the color in the skin, and I would like to get the ruddiness out of the face to a greater degree than rest of skin so they are more even.

I made it darker by using the selective adj layer and added black and yellow to the neutrals, and black and yellow to the reds with a mask painting white only in the more rosey places on the face.

Due to my lack of experience with PS I am having a tough time figuring out to make these color adjustments correctly.

I know how to make the selective color adjustment layer and how to make color setting through the dialog box that is presented during the initial creation of layer, however I do not know how to make adjustments thereafter.

Is it possible to make color adjustments outside of the step in the initial creation of the layer where a dialog box pops up?

Do I need a separate adjustment layer for each color group?

On the "A" adj layer with mask revealing all the skin:
Reds: magenta -30; yellow +15
Magentas: magenta -54; yellow +100
Whites: yellow +100
Neutrals: yellow +18; black +30

On the "B" adj layer with mask revealing only the reds that needed more 'bronzing':
Reds: yellow +24; black +13

I'm sure there are many combinations that will achieve the same result as well as other methods.

Good luck

Thanks this was immensely helpful.

Why would this be done in CMYK as opposed to RGB?
I have a feeling there is something very basic that I don't know.

Why would this be done in CMYK as opposed to RGB?
I have a feeling there is something very basic that I don't know.

i'm pretty curious as well

im just guessing.... but,

more control perhaps? since there are 4 color paths to work with instead of three?

Why would this be done in CMYK as opposed to RGB?
I have a feeling there is something very basic that I don't know.

Don't worry, it's more of a personal preference than anything special.

Those who work closer to the printed medium, i.e. using CMYK, have figured out some rule-of-thumb adjustments that usually serve well.
But you can work in any mode.
I, personally, will always do skintones in Lab mode.

Rô