I am trying to colorize a B&W photo of my grandparents. I'm still not a pro at this, but it is looking pretty good except for the skin tones. I can't tell exactly what it is I don't like about them, so I don't know how to fix it. Maybe it's too flat? I don't know...??

Attached are two cropped pictures, one original and one colorized. Do you have any suggestions for me?

I'm no expert on this, and there will certainly be advice from others more qualified, but the tone is a bit flat.

What I do is sample the skin colour, then pick a colour close to it, but a little lighter/darker than it on the colour picker, and using a soft brush apply colour to highlight/shadow areas.

I usually do this on seperate layers set to colour blend. This enables me to blur to hide the brush strokes, and to adjust layer opacity for fine control.

Hope this helps a little.

I don't know if I've made this better or worse...

I'm still working at it though. Thanks for your suggestion Gary.

I sometimes use a gradient map layer set to the color blend mode to mimic the variation on skin color depending on tone. Also you original image is lacking in the contrast needed to provide accurate looking skin tone. Here is what I did:

1. Curves
2. Levels
3. New gradient map
4. Selected good skin colors (one of them is a little magenta, but I was working fast.)
5. Set the blend mode to color
6. Fill the mask with black
7. Paint in the skin color with a white brush
8. Switch to sRGB (because it was going to the web)
9. Selective colors adjustment layer to tweak the color
10. Save file

Hope that helps,

Michael

Discovered this by accident while working on the Marilyn thread over in Photo Art the other day. Put a duplicate layer on top, and change the blending mode to hard light.

Hi!

Skintone has a color ballance. In cmyk it's: X is the value of magenta what gives the main color of the skin C gives the shade of the skin should be X-(8 to 20)% exactly it depends on the picture, Y should be X+(17 to 35)%

C: 15% M: 38% Y: 55% for example

Hi,

in my opinion, the original picture was a bit 'flat' so, before colouring it, I boosted tone and contrast a bit...

You don't have enough color. It looks desaturated.
Also, it looks as though you've only used 2 colors; 1 for the skin, and 1 for the lips. A face is a blend of colors, using only 1 color for skin will give it a flat look.

I copied the layer in overlay mode and then used levels to increase contrast.

Is this any better? I've used all your tips, thank you so much!

Here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18595) is the original, and this (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18596) is my first attempt.

Attached is my latest attempt.

Definitely a great improvment!!! :bigthmb:

Skin colouring is surely one of the most delicate and difficult tasks in retouching!!! :o:

Well the second attempt was better. However he still looked a tad pale. I downloaded your picture and increased the saturation by +30. Perhaps that is an improvement.

Your original picture is on the right. The increase sat one on the left.

keepemcomin, it still looks undersaturated. I'm wondering if your monitor is calibrated? Do the other postings look "over" saturated to you?

Vikki, interesting thought. Some of them do look oversaturated. When I go that far it looks orange to me.

I'll check into that...thanks for pointing it out.