Help needed with skin color

[SMcLean]

Recently a colleague asked me to do some retouch work on a picture of himself. (hope he doesn't mind me showing him here :-) )
I used the Liquify tool to correct the shin, and Clone stamp to replace the skin afterwards.
Only took me about 10 to 15 minutes, dead easy. And I'm a mere newbie.
But one thing I don't seem to get right is the color of the skin. Can someone help me on this one?

It also seems the colors are less saturated (reddish) on web than in CS2. Can anyone explain why?

Tips/crits will be highly appreciated.

(my apologies for the small resolution files, limited to 100kb, I can forward originals if you want)

[SteveB2005]

Hi. I did a tweak on your reddish face and checked the red and yellow curve. Usually you want the yellow to be 2-7% higher than the magenta (red) to prevent that sunburned look. I also took some of the red out with saturation control. Hope it looks ok on your monitor. Here is my example. Thanks steveb

[Peter S]

It also seems the colors are less saturated (reddish) on web than in CS2. Can anyone explain why?

You need to set your colour profile to Adobe sRGB to better match what you see in PS and on the web.

One quick way with this pic to correct the skin tones. Duplicate the background as another layer, set the blending mode to Screen, the set the opacity of that layer to approx 50% this gives a not too bad result.
Sorry have not attached a sample.
By the way your friend needs a shave!!!!!!!!

Hope this helps

Peter

[Vikki]

I actually prefer the skin color in the original (left photo, I'm presuming). The image could use a levels or curves adjustment as it looks hazy, but otherwise I like the color. Most times people correct to warm up too cool skin color, and your adjustment looks like you've added magenta. Is there a reason why it does not look correct to you?

I have to disagree with Peter regarding the profile. Not too many devices, or the web use Adobe RGB. I recommend using sRGB, and viewing "soft proofing". Also, I wouldn't advise using the screen mode technique for color corrections.

[mistermonday]

I agree with Vicki on both points. The image on the left looks more normal. The skin tone on the right appears to have too much magenta. A quick Hue?saturation adjustment or Selective Color Adj. will take care of it.

Also agree that most of the web images will look correct if you treat them as if they were sRGB. If you are interested in learning about color management, I would recommend you start here: http://www.computer-darkroom.com

I reduced the magenta and gave your friend a once over with the digital Philishave.

Regards, Murray

[SMcLean]

Thanks , the skin in your examples look indeed more natural.

Vikki I got this red look when I changed the picture profile from sRGB to RGB.
I was told the latter is a better profile (???)

To misterMonday, can you explain how you did your change (colorwise), so I can reproduce this myself.
I especially like the "Digital shave" you did as well. Did you use healing brush for this?

Btw did anyone like the work on the chin , or could it be improved?

[Peter S]

I have to disagree with Peter regarding the profile. Not too many devices, or the web use Adobe RGB. I recommend using sRGB, and viewing "soft proofing". Also, I wouldn't advise using the screen mode technique for color corrections.

Vikki I think if you re-read what I wrote you will see that I did reccommend Using sRGB profile.
The screen blending, you are right but it seemed to work with this particular image though,and it was quick, thats why I mentioned it.

[mistermonday]

S,
Attached are 2 ways to do essentially the same thing. The first is a Hue Saturation adjust. Because the color you want to shift is in the Reds spectrum, you select the Red spectrum from the pull down menu. Then using the eyedroppers you sample the face to select the color range (you will see it on the rainbow scale at the bottom of the window). Then shift the Hue slider toward the right (yellow - green) until the color looks correct. In this case I found that the color was too intense so I also reduced the Saturation by 10. You can play with it till it looks just right. The other thing you can do is place a couple of eyedropper targets on his face prior to doing the Hue Sat command. Then, using the info palette you can watch the RGB values change as you move the sliders. Some people have preferred values for skin tones and they prefer to adjust by the numbers.
The 2nd method uses the Image>Adjust>Selective Color. You select the Red but this tools works slightly differently. You are trying to reduce the magenta in the skin tone so you back down the Magenta slider (it adds Green which is the opposite of Magenta). You can also add yellow if you want to warm it up more. This method is very precise and makes very small shifts if you need the precision. However if the image needs other correction such as lightness and saturation, you will need to do it elsewhere.

As for the digital shave, there is an excellent tutorial on RP posted by Ro as a Degrunge technique. Here is the link
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213
Regards, Murray

[SMcLean]

Thanks Murray , that was really helpful.

You mention adjusting the skin to fixed RGB numbers (method 1), any idea where I can find these numbers/calculations?

Cheers,


Steve

[mistermonday]

Steve, I have a skin tone chart in jpg format on my computer at home. I will upload it tonight but that won't be for a few hours.
Regards, Murray