Yellow skin

[QueenBrownShuga]

First I want to say thank you to all the wonderful people at this site who have helped over time. I love the cooperation and the willingness to give.

Now my situation. When I take photos of myself or any light skin colored person, I end up with yellow skin such as my attachments. I figured some of that yellow in my nephews picture is because he has high yellow content in his skin, but this is too much. IF nothing can be done about the yellow skin, how can I tone it down so it's not so bright? One photo is me and the other is my nephew.

[irshgrlkc]

I did this very quickly and had to guess as I don't have an actual sample of your skin tone so I'm sure you'll do a much better job.

For your picture I simply added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. From the Edit pull down menu I selected yellows and applied the following settings: Hue -29, Saturation -38, Lightness -14.

For your nephew I added a Selective Color adjustment layer and from the pull down menu selected yellows again with the following settings: -9%, +5%, -100%, +23%. I then applied a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer exactly like the one I used on your picture. I'm not totally pleased with how your nephew turned out and I'm sure some more fiddling would help.

Hope this helps.

[JBurt]

Hi, Shuga
The biggest problem I see is you are using an undiffused camera flash. It is burning out a large part of your skin and making your pictures look flat. I don't know what camera and flash you are using but any flash will benefit by using something to diffuse and soften the light. Or try bouncing the light off of the ceiling or a white card or...

There are commercial products available for the professional units but you can make one by cutting up a plastic milk carton or... I have even used a white hankie in a pinch. Samples are below. Yes, I use those. I'm a cheap sucker and they are easy to pack. Besides, no one wants to steal them.
Moving the flash away from the camera so it is not straight on would help alot also.

[solitear]

Hi QueenBrownSuga.....

I've posted your original with 2 versions of the same picture...... it's a little hard for me to feel sympathy for you because I purposely buy makeup with more yellow in it since I think it's prettier than my pink skin....... but anyway....

I just gave quick descriptions on the photos but if you'd like more info. I'll be happy to post the actual steps...... you do have gorgeous skin!

oxoxo
Beth

[solitear]

Hey Kerry....... I really liked the way yours turned out........ I'm going to play around with your method !

oxoxo
Beth

[irshgrlkc]

Beth,

LOL, you took the words right out of my mouth. I looked at yours and said, ohh, I want to try her method.

[mistermonday]

Shuga, I don't know if these are close to the real skin tones, but they are less yellow. I applied a hue/saturation layer to both images and then toned down the blown highlights.
Regards, Murray

[solitear]

Hey shuga........ are you using Photoshop or some photo editing software or are you talking about something that you can adjust with your camera?

Just thought to ask that to make sure....... anyway..... on your nephew I just did Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer then like Kerry I went to Layers > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation and I boosted the saturation......

Then on that boosted layer I went to Image > Adjustments > Photo Filters and choose Blue and played with the opacity slider before clicking, OK....

That was all for him....

Beth

[solitear]

Murray..... yours look great, too....... and seems like a quick method with great results!

Hey Kerry...... I did want to say I cheated on the second pic because I painted on a blank layer with my brush in overlay mode to tone down highlights then blurred it and darkened it with a Hue/Sat adjustment ...... hence the smoothing.......

And on the third one after the Color Balance adjustment (no painting on blank layer on this one) I did a sort of mini de-grunge for skin softening...... I'm really loving using it too, even though I went a little too smooth...... it's highly adjustable for the different areas of the face with differing pore sizes.......

oxoxo
Beth

[pepperspray]

Hi, there!

I had a go, too.

I selected the luminosity [ ctrl + shift + Alt + ~ ], and pasted it to a new layer. I then blurred it quite heavily, and used a layer mask to hide some of the effect with a soft black brush. I copied that again, and then ran variations on that layer to take out some of the yellow and darkened it a bit. I also adjusted the layer opacity and fill, to get a softer mix.

I used the burn tool on your lips a bit, too, because they grew too light.


Not perfect; but not bad, either.

[solitear]

Pepperspray...... that looks great..... and I'm guessing the softness comes from the blurring of the luminosity layer??? I keep forgetting to even try things like that.......

Beth

[pepperspray]

Thanks! I've been a bit shy to jump in with my efforts so far, but your comment is very encouraging.

And yes, you were right - I remembered reading a tutorial about blurring the lightness and when I saw this image, I thought I'd try it. It's certainly an excellent one to add to the toolbox - and you don't even need to change to LAB mode.

[QueenBrownShuga]

Pepperspray...Wow, you did fabulous. I can't say I understand the process you used, but I sure would like to understand.

Solitear...Ditto WOW. I love both of the changes you made. I would love it if you would break it down for me how you did them. I use PSP X to edit my photos so hopefully I can make sense out of the steps you used (assuming you use PS or something else). And BTW thanks for the compliment.

JBurt...I have a Sony DSC-W7 Cybershot, so for this camera your suggestions won't work. However, I will be upgrading to the Sony DSC-R1. So, thank you for your suggestions and I will use them. What kind of Camera do you have?

Thanks everyone for you help. It was much appreciated.

God Bless

[pepperspray]

Cheers, QueenBrownShuga.

I don't know the first thing about PSP, sorry. I use PS CS2.

[QueenBrownShuga]

If I could afford Photoshop CS2, I would make the switch. But thanks anyway.