Photo Retouching - - Advice

skydog · #1 03-24-2007, 04:22 PM

I recently took some photos of my daughters friend in the late evening. The sun was going down behind me and I made my shots in the shade to avoid harsh lights on the face. However, the face is very washed out and "pink". Her face is normally pale to white. Should color be forced into the skin or brought closer to white?

If you make a correction..pls explain what you did..thanks

skydog · #2 03-24-2007, 05:06 PM

I'm sure there may be a better way and one that would give better results, but this is what I've done so far...

I took the photo to photoshop 9 where I have some experience with the "manual color adjustment". In this area ther are skin tones to chose from. I looked at each one and chose one that I felt made the photo look better. I did this to a copy of my original background layer. I then changed the layer settings just to see what would happen. Multipy looked good and I dropped the opacity to 50%. I then brought my photo back into PSP and slightly adjusted the saturation.

CathyH · #3 03-24-2007, 05:17 PM

HI
I'm not sure if this is the best way, but I used the color balance and adjusted all the different tone balances.
What do you think?

skydog · #4 03-24-2007, 05:28 PM

Thanks CathyH...I did try that, but I wasn't totally satisfied. I should have shot in raw and I should have used a gray card. As they often say on this site, it is better to shoot it right the first time than fix it in PSP. BUT....if anyone else has any thougths or advice...please sent them my way.

goldaline · #5 03-24-2007, 06:39 PM

i desaturated a bit, increased warmth (using a warmth/brilliance filter) and contrast over the whole picture...then used a mask to paint the original cooler tones back into the background and a little on the eyes...

skydog · #6 03-24-2007, 07:39 PM

goldaline,

I like the effect you achieved....now tell me what warmth/brilliance filter did you use? do you have a link? Do you use it with PSP or stand alone.

thanks.

des151 · #7 03-24-2007, 08:28 PM

Hi Skydog, I used a level, hue/sat and curves adj. layers

Ray

goldaline · #8 03-24-2007, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skydog

goldaline,

I like the effect you achieved....now tell me what warmth/brilliance filter did you use? do you have a link? Do you use it with PSP or stand alone.

thanks.

it is from nik color efex 2.0 pro... they aren't free plugins unfortunately. http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/usa/entry.php
i use them with PSP CS

my version of CS has photo filters under the image->adjustments menu...i don't remember if it came with it or it was an extra....but it seems to me extra filters are in the filters menu... so check and see, if you have them, there are preset warming (and cooling) filters in there...you don't get as much control as with the nik filters but they are pretty good.

you can achieve a similar effect by doing hue/saturation corrections towards warm and masking back in the background, and then doing color or overlay blend modes over the hair and skin with yellow/orange/brown brushes, and adjusting opacity and using masks to fine tune...and then adding contrast. curves would also work to balance the color.

try hue (RGB) at +41 and saturation at -29...that right there takes most of the coolness out...then try painting with warm colors...

good luck.

Cassidy · #9 03-24-2007, 11:43 PM

Changed picture mode to LAB and then used a curves adjustment only on the b channel

2nd one Lab and adjustment to curves followed by levels

chillin · #10 03-25-2007, 01:10 AM

I would give a hint of warm color, but I would keep eyes untouched.
In PSP I used:
Color Adjust Level, Neat Image and high pass filter for sharpening.

skydog · #11 03-25-2007, 05:54 AM

Thanks for everyone's feedback so far. Yes, learning more about LAB is on my list. And thanks for the info on the filters. Can any one explain the difference between unmask filter and the high pass filter? Is it just a personal preference?

I've never studied a "person's color" (what colors someone wears to best suit their skin), but I'm now wondering if the girl I took pictures of should have been put in a different setting? Thoughts.

chillin · #12 03-25-2007, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skydog

... Can any one explain the difference between unmask filter and the high pass filter? Is it just a personal preference?

This might help you

NYBOB · #13 03-25-2007, 11:52 AM

You can get the Nik color efex warmth/brilliance filter free Here.

Bob

skydog · #14 03-25-2007, 02:12 PM

Thank you Chillin and Bob

madclark · #15 03-26-2007, 10:55 AM

Manual Curves Adjustment
I used a Threshold layer temporarily to find the white point and black point and adjust the channels in the Curves adjustment so they were 247 and 7 across the board.
Auto Levels Adjustment with the Midpoint Lowered
Let Photoshop do its thing and then just lower the Midpoint to brighten the image in general
Brightness/Contrast Tweak
Brightening it some through the Midpoint Levels adjustment lost some contrast so I tweaked these setting lowering the brightness and raising the contrast

Can I make a suggestion that you post a smaller resolution of the whole picture? Sometimes it helps putting corrections in context. For example there seems to be a bit of a blue cast in the duller midtones and shadows. The crop you have makes it look like it's wrong but in the context of the whole picture it might make sense depending on the lighting of the rest of the scene.