local color correcting

[WandererX]

I'm having a little bit of a problem with my local color management and was wondering if someone could give me some advice. Couple of questions here. First, if I'm dodging out a dark area on the skin and one layer doesn't get the tone light enough would I add a second layer and dodge with two layers? Second question, if I do that I end up with a color shift. When I lighten or darken an area of extremes I notice the shift in color so, how do you go about color correcting the lightened area to blend with the skin tone around the area? Would the same hold true for color correcting veins in the temple or shoulder? Thanks in advance!

[pellepiano]

When I notice color shifts due to dodge layers or other, I usually make a new empty layer set to color blend mode, sample the color I want with the eye dropper and paint ( and change opacity if you dont have a wacom ).

[Der_W]

There are some workarounds to prevent color shifting from the beginning, for example if you're using curves to dodge & burn you can set them to "Luminosity" mode or if you're dodging & burning on a "Soft Light"-layer you can create a new adjustment layer (any will do), set its blending mode to "Luminosity" and clip the "Soft Light"-layer to it ([Ctrl]+[Alt]+[G]).
If both doesn't work for you I tend to use a new layer set to "Saturation" mode and paint with white to lower the saturation or with 100% saturated red (RGB: 255/0/0; any 100% saturated color will do its just a matter of preference) to bring the saturation up.

[mistermonday]

Yes, adding a 2nd dodge layer will compound the 1st layer and is a good solution. Of the popular D&B methods (50% Gray layer set to soft light; Curves layers; solid color layers set to soft light), some have a broader adjustment range than others so you might want to try an alternate one.
The methods mentioned above to correct for color shifting are both valid and work well.
As for the veins, dodging them is usually not a good solution because they are not just darker areas of adjacent skin - they are very different in color. More effective solutions for blood vessels are Healing Brush, Clone Tools, Patch tool, Selective Color Adj, Hue/Sat Adj.
Regards, Murray

[WandererX]

hey thank you much everybody!

[Andrew Lawrence]

Let's say your dodging a shadow on the face with a 50% grey layer on softlight, and it kind of makes like a white/grey color that doesn't match the rest of the skin. In this instance, instead of dodging with a white brush, I eye dropper sample the skin I want it to look like and then go into that sampled color and significantly increase the Brightness (under HSB) so now you're painting with a almost white brush but it has a little bit of that color in it. Works great, just paint it right on that great layer.