How to make the nose same color as skin

[Gerald McClaren]

I had tried everything possible in photoshop cs2 and cannot change the color of the nose to match the color of the skin. I had tried replace color, color replacement tool, hue saturation, and match color. I tried sampling the skin color with the brush and painted the sampler color but it doesn't work. The center of the nose has this shiny color that is driving me nuts. I cannot remove the shiny center of the nose, so everytime I painted any color on it, it gets shiny in the center. I had tried placing the nose on a separate layer and that doesn't work either. Can someone please help me.

Gerald McClaren

[Ken Fournelle]

Try making an empty layer at the top of your stack--Cmc/Ctrl>N---set the blending mode to Color, sample the skin color you like, with a soft brush set to say, 60% opacity, paint over the area. Play with the percentage of opacity to see what works best.

k

[Gerald McClaren]

This is the original photo that I had restored so far. Changing the color of the nose was killing me.


Gerald McClaren

[Gerald McClaren]

Hate to ask such a dumb question Ken Fournelle, but what is Cmc in front of Ctrl + N means.

Gerald McClaren

[Peter S]

but what is Cmc in front of Ctrl + N mean

I think it's a typo and should be CMD/CTRL + N the first (COMMAND) is the keyboard strokes for a Mac the second (CONTROL) for Windows.

P

[Vikki]

One of the problems is that you are trying to color an area (the shine) where there is no base color to change. If I'm assuming correctly, what you'll need to do is repair that area, then try to match the color.
To color that specific area, you can add a layer and set the layer mode to "color". Now when you color on that layer, the color will show over the image below.
Another issue I see, is that the nose looks too dark compared to the original. Actually, it looks like someone else's nose. You may get the color right, but you'll probably have another problem here.

[Ken Fournelle]

Thanks, Peter. It was a typo, sorry.

One thing that Vikki brings up that's true is by using the empty layer set to Color, sampling a color; you will not be able to paint over an area that has no data. byRo has an excellent tutorial, Skin Tone Correction - Unclipping to help correct this kind of problem. Look in the Tutorial section.
He also has an action for the tutorial that simplifies the unclipping steps.
It has been a great help.

k

[edgework]

Originally Posted by Vikki

One of the problems is that you are trying to color an area (the shine) where there is no base color to change. If I'm assuming correctly, what you'll need to do is repair that area, then try to match the color.
To color that specific area, you can add a layer and set the layer mode to "color". Now when you color on that layer, the color will show over the image below.
Another issue I see, is that the nose looks too dark compared to the original. Actually, it looks like someone else's nose. You may get the color right, but you'll probably have another problem here.

Convert to LAB first. It behaves very differently than RGB or CMYK. In those spaces, the lighter or darker you get, the more neutral the color. Painting a color in color mode has no effect because it's impossible to have something really bright that is also full of color.

LAB can spec any color you can think of and all the colors that are beyond your imagination as well, including one that is as bright as possilbe, yet also as green, or blue, or yellow, as possible. It's impossible to print such a color or display it, but Photoshop will attempt to split the difference and the result will be color in all the blown out areas. Since the display is already in RGB space, converting the file back to RGB will maintain the color (assuming the layer is flattened first). Then, the healing brush can put some believable texture into the area and you're good to go.

[Vikki]

Edgework, I don't understand what you're saying.

[Kraellin]

gerald,

i've seen a couple threads now where you've been working on this image, so i thought i'd drop in.

i'm attaching a fix here. all i did was the missing area, so ignore all the other things that are still wrong here.

ALL i did was clone and push. that's all. as i recall from your original post in the other thread, you ended up with what we call the 'pasty' look. this is a result of too much of the same clone all over or too much smudge or similar tools where you duplicate one tone too much. with clone and similar tools, you have to take small samples from all around the area you're trying to fix. and use a lower opacity on the tool as you do it. do small bits at a time. nibble it. start with the easy areas and work in. observe the area you're cloning from and the area you're going to clone to. the key is observation. zoom in. use a smaller brush. nibble, nibble, nibble. little bits at a time. i used a brush size of about 4 to 6 most of the time.

when i get most of the clone done, i'll sometimes use the push brush to smooth edges and blend the clone pattern out a bit. the clone pattern is simply where you're cloning the same thing over and over and it leaves a pattern. and on the push brush i used a very small brush also, about 2 to 4 or so. i 'drew' the missing nostril with the push and clone. clone gave me the colors from the other nostril and push allowed me to shape things.

it takes a bit of time, but not as much as you might think maybe.

good luck

craig

[Biffstress]

Did you try switching the resolution (image size)? or switching Image/Mode/RGB and 8bit? Sometimes if its in the wrong mode I know I have problems. As well with Proof Setup/Working CMYK... sometimes I as well have to play around with those settings to get it. Course I have only been playing around with it for only two months.

Idea as well Ok so I am not an expert just a dabler but maybe using Phototune's Skintune Plugin might help at least set the other colors in the picture of skintone. Then possibley switching modes and see what happens? Then maybe you could clone it bit by bit in small areas. Because you could always switch back....

Biffstress

[bart_hickman]

I created a second raster layer with the color blend mode (standard color blend mode in Paintshop Pro X is based on the HSL color space). The color blend mode in Photoshop (which is called color-legacy in Paintshop Pro) is significantly different. When I'm doing something like this, I always try legacy and non-legacy. In all cases so far (knock on wood) one or other worked.

Anyway, the HSL color blend seemed to be the ticket in this case. Just sampled the cheek and then painted on the color blend layer.

Bart

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Gerald,

Had a very quick play with your picture.

New layer, clone from cheek, using clone brush set to about 10%.
New layer set to colour mode, sample from cheek, and colour stained areas round nostrils.

Colour correct with levels, adjust contrast as well.

Bit crude, but with more time a better job is possible.

[Gerald McClaren]

I went to ByRo tutorial on Skin Tone Correction- Unclipping and was confused on which layer is A, B, or C. I don't understand if the 'C' layer is Image>Adjustments>Brightness, Duplicate and set blending to Color, or HSL layer. I got stucked on page 3 when he mentioned to back to layer B, and layer C. Can someone please explain which layer is which.


Gerald McClaren

[Flora]

Hi everybody,

Gerald,

I strongly agree with Vikki .... It looks like someone else's nose ... meaning copied and pasted from another picture .... so, beside the colour, luminosity, contrast and sharpness are 'wrong'.

You didn't do anything 'wrong' since 'borrowing' parts from other pictures is a very common procedure in 'reconstruction' of missing parts .... It's the blending in of the 'borrowed' parts that's the killer .... and, if done wrongly not only it's a dead giveaway .... but it can make the subject look bizarre ....

Here, the colour mismatch is the one of the most obvious problems, but, to quote Vikki, even after correcting the colour,

..... you'll probably have another problem here.

... well more than one as repeating myself "luminosity, contrast and sharpness are also 'wrong' ".

That said, I worked on the picture:

* Loosely selected around the nose and feathered the selection (Radius: 5 pxs)

* With the selection still active (marching ants around it) I created a Selective Colors Adjustment Layer ... (also very useful to adjust luminosity and contrast by tweaking the amount of 'Black' in the different colours )

* In the Selective Colors Adjustment Layer, click on the small downward arrow beside the 'Colors:' box to access the different Colours and make sure you have the Method: Relative checked

I tweaked the following colours only as follows:

REDS
Cyan: -8
Magenta: -15
Yellow: -17
Black: -13

YELLOWS
Cyan: -13
Magenta: -10
Yellow: -64
Black: -8

WHITES
Cyan: -24
Magenta: +3
Yellow: +3
Black: +18

NEUTRAL
Cyan: -10
Magenta: +3
Yellow: 0
Black: -4

Well, that had actually already solved most of the problems .... but there was still the issue of downtoning the shiny part on the bridge of her nose that worried you .... To fix that I simply created a blank layer set to Darken on top and, with a very soft brush (Opacity 20%), sampling colour from the surrounding areas, I carefully painted over it.... That was all ....

Hope this helps...

P.S. I had forgotten ... I have also corrected the nose's position twisting it ever so slightly to the left

[Gerald McClaren]

Flora, thanks for taking the time to write out more or less what you've had done to make the nose the same color as the skin. Yes, the nose wasn't mine, I copied it from someone that place a nose on that photo. I had tried several nose, but couldn't get the nose to match the skin. How can I bring back the color on this photo. Do I use the level, color variations, or color balance. I really appreaciated your help on the nose job, it came out very, very, close to the skin color. Thanks again.

Gerald McClaren

[Flora]

Hi Gerald,

I restarted on the original posted on your other Thread .... I didn't redo all the restoration but simply removed the most disturbing spots and generally cleaned it up a bit so the colour correction could be seen better .....

One thing ... the colours I see on my monitor may differ from those you see on yours ... this is due to the possible different Monitor Calibration ... in other words colours that look just right to me may look 'off' to you ... so, you might have to change/tweak the values I give and adjust them until the colours look right to you ... but it is a start

That said, I corrected the colours and a bit the contrast with one Levels and one Selective colors Adjustment Layers.

Levels Adjustment Layer :

RGB
Input Levels: 26; 0.88; 247
RED
Input Levels: 71; 1.00; 255
GREEN
Input Levels: 0; 1.00; 255
BLUE
Input Levels: 22; 0.78; 231

Selective Colors Adjustment Layer :

REDS
Cyan: -30
Magenta: -4
Yellow: +13
Black: +7

YELLOWS
Cyan: -8
Magenta: 0
Yellow: 0
Black: +19

WHITES
Cyan: +7
Magenta: -9
Yellow: -21
Black: +24

NEUTRALS
Cyan: 0
Magenta: 0
Yellow: +3
Black: 0

BLACKS
Cyan: +9
Magenta: +9
Yellow: -7
Black: +17

These are the values that worked for me ... but, as I said, you might have to tweak them a bit differently ...

Hope this helps ...