Image Help - - Neutralize warm skin

ChrisC · #1 08-30-2007, 06:05 PM

I have an image where the skin of the subject is very warm. I'm trying to neutralize the color and end up with a fairly neutral skin tone. The image started out being about twice as warm as the attached jpg. I've been able to get to this point by using a combination of curves, saturation and channel mixer layers to neutralize the skin tone. I'm stuck as how to go about neutralizing it further. Removing more color leaves me with a image that looks unnatural. Is there any way to arrive at a more neutral skin tone that still looks believable?

Thanks for your help.

mistermonday · #2 08-30-2007, 06:55 PM

Chris, all of you curves, saturation, and channel mixer, have likely made it much harder to repair than the original would have. Most likely the original was affected by a color cast or an excessive camera / film setting. These problems have an arsenal of standard adjustment / techniques that can correct the standard problem. I suggest you post the original image rather than the one in which you have non linearly shift the color values or the relationships between the image channels.
Regards, Murray

ChrisC · #3 08-30-2007, 07:41 PM

Hi Murray,

Here's the original scan

HroadhogD1 · #4 08-30-2007, 09:41 PM

Hi, I dont really know what you are looking for, but I applied two cooling filters, and a curves adjustment.

HroadhogD1 · #5 08-30-2007, 09:43 PM

Now its very red skin. LOL

chillin · #6 08-30-2007, 10:20 PM

I think you got very good results. I used iCorrect to selectively adjust colors.

des151 · #7 08-30-2007, 10:21 PM

Hi Chris,
wanted to give it a try.
Ray

Dave.Cox · #8 08-30-2007, 10:35 PM

Here's my go at this. All I adjusted on this one is the face. I left the rest of the photo as it was.

mistermonday · #9 08-30-2007, 10:43 PM

Chris, yes, the image looks too warm. If you look at the skin it is definitely too red. Another clue that the image is too red is that the sky looks purplish and not natural. That is also because it is too red. The image is also too dark and because it is dark, the "warm" look is further accentuated. The first thing to do with this image is adjust the tone (light and dark) and then when the tone is normalized, tweak the color.
You can adjust the tone many ways. A Shadow / Highlight adj will work as will a Curve adj. I used a curves adjustment layer and adjusted each channel separately (if you have CS3 there ia an Auto button to do it automatically if you select the Per Channel option). Once the tone is adjusted a simple Hue Saturation adjustment will fix the color. I used one here and selected the Red channel and moved the hue toward the right. However, what may look like ok skin color to me may not be good for you but you have the hole spectrum to play with. You can also use a Selective Color adj to shift the color. Select the Reds and then play with the sliders to get the color you want.
If you prefer there is alos the Image Adjust Variations if you wish to apply a global color adjustment. There is also Image Adjust Color Balance and other tools you can use. The bottom line is that the corrections should not require more than a quick tone correction and a quick color correction. You do not need to do a whole lot of elaborate stuff to fix it.
Regards, Murray

lurch · #10 08-30-2007, 10:50 PM

Dave, your adjustment is very well done. I had to comment on the original scan, though. The warm skin tones there are quite consistent with the low sun angle in the shot and the purplish sky. Reminds me of late afternoon light after a storm. Why change them?

<C>

Cassidy · #11 08-31-2007, 07:58 AM

This looked interesting, using the original mainly mucked around with the midranges of each channel.

Daviskw · #12 08-31-2007, 11:30 AM

I think it should be warm to match the light...the balance of yellow to red is not that off for low light... I believe you have added too much cyan.

But i gave it a try at what I think you are looking for.

Butch

ChrisC · #13 08-31-2007, 05:15 PM

Looks like everyone is ending up where I did. Attached is an example of what I would consider to be a more neutral skin tone (for those who've asked). I'm hoping to end up with a skin tone closer to this than what I presently have. My knowledge of photoshop beyond the basics is limited and everything I've tried leaves me with less that realistic looking skin tones.
For what it's worth the light on the subject is from a flash, gelled to mimic very warm light. Essentially I'm trying to neutralize the colored gel and the redness in his skin.

Thanks

Dave.Cox · #14 08-31-2007, 05:55 PM

Are you saying that you want the skin color to look very white, like that on the child? Although that could be done, it isn't going to look right.

lurch · #15 08-31-2007, 06:20 PM

ChrisC -

The example you've given us isn't a natural skin tone. It's a baby with a strong cyan cast. If that's the effect you're after for artistic purposes, that's fine. If you're just trying to correct for the gel color cast and get normal looking caucasian skin, aim for (roughly) yellow a little higher than magenta, with cyan between 1/5 and 1/3 the magenta value. Dave's correction did that.