Skin tone adjustment questions from a newbie

[blkmagic]

Hi Everyone,

I've been trying to adjust my sister's skin tone in this picture without satisfactory results. I've followed the Dior Look tutorial on this website and retouched a lot of the picture already, just on my sister. (see the before and after shots linked).

I read the CMYK skin tone tutorial on smugmug.com. But being Asian, the values listed doesn't seem to achieve what I'm looking for. I'd really like detailed instructions on how to adjust my sister's skin tones closer to my daughter's with 2 methods.

First the color match/replace method where I have a sample color available. And second, just using curves in CMYK mode. The CMY value of a 3x3 sample in middle of the forehead of the adjusted picture is 18%/49%/68%. And I sampled the forehead and cheek area on the yellow channel for the adjustments.

Where does skin tone adjustment fit in the work flow anyways? Before or after the blemish removal, blurring of the skin, highpass filter etc...?

As I only have a sony point and shoot camera, pretty much all indoor shots needs retouching. So I look forward to sharing/contributing in this forum.

Before High Res http://cid-1d276b490206540a.skydrive...lody%20032.jpg

After High Res
http://cid-1d276b490206540a.skydrive...32%20copy2.jpg

[Maroon]

I'd try to help, but your pictures aren't loading. When I click the link, it redirects me to a hotmail sign-in page. Can you upload them to a free hosting site like xs.to?

[0lBaldy]

Maybe this will help with your quest...

[Daviskw]

Hi there

Just my opinion but I believe you have too much cyan in your retouched version.

Below is my version using curves and a mask.

But of course only you know the true color of your sister’s skin

I usually try and correct color and luminance early in the workflow… before I repair blemishes.

Butch


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k6...titled-2-6.jpg

[blkmagic]

@Maroon

I've shrank down the pics and attached them. But I've tried the link myself w/o logging into hotmail and they work just fine... they're linked to the public area of MSN's skydrive so no login should be necessary.

@ 0lBaldy & Daviskw

WOW! Both of you did much better jobs than I in achieving the skin tone I was looking for. I think one mistake I made was went through the Dior tutorial with all it's shadows and highlight adjustments before I did the skin tone, so it ended up looking a bit patchy...

And Daviskw, did u use a RGB or CMYK curve? Would you be able to send me a screen shot of the curves so I can get a feel for it? Coz I've been playing with the CMY curves but just couldn't get a realistic result.

[Daviskw]

Hi there…I’m afraid I did not save the layers. I always use RGB to adjust skin tone but I read the values in CMYK.

I set up the info pallet to read both RGB and CMYK. I then make selections of mid-tone colors in the skin. I may make two or three samples, not all just a few representative areas, then using Ctrl J I put the selected skin on its own temp layer.
I then ctrl click the new layer to activate the selection then apply Filters>Blur>Average. This gives me the average existing skin tone. Be sure the selection is active or the average command will not work properly.

With the selection still active I open a curves adjustment layer and ctrl+shift click on an averaged area to place markers on the individual channels.

I then check this existing value looking at the CMYK numbers.

If I believe the cyan is to high I then use the red channel in the curves adjustment layer and increase red… red is opposite cyan.
For the magenta values I adjust the green channel… its opposite
For yellow I adjust the blue channel.

I am adjusting RGB values but looking at the CMYK values in info window.

When I have the values I want I delete the averaged layer.. then use the mask on the adjustment layer to paint the new tones where I want them.

The values I try to use for Asian skin are Yellow 10 to 15 greater than magenta and cyan a 1/4 to a 1/3 of magenta.

I then adjust local saturation and brightness on the skin tones to get the look I want.


Butch

[blkmagic]

Thanks for the detailed instructions Daveskw! I'm just a bit confused when you said "make selections of mid-tone colors in the skin. I may make two or three samples".

Are u talking about using the magic wand tool to select the skin surfaces? How do u select just mid-tones?

Oh, and when u say "adjust local saturation and brightness on the skin tones to get the look I want.". I assume you're using the Hue/Saturation adjustment for saturation, but for brightness are u using curves again? Or level, or just the Lightness slider in the Hue/Saturation adj dialogue box?

[blkmagic]

@0lBaldy

I see that u used levels to change the skin tone. Didu change the output levles or just the histogram sliders? And what area should I focus on for this adjustment?

For the Hue/Saturation adj, did u just use the master or went into individual channels? And do u recommend using the Lightness slider at all?

[0lBaldy]

I used the levels Sliders while holding down the Alt key on the R,G,B channels focusing on the different areas labeled (shirt, child's face, womans face, and overall) this was just to get even levels on those areas..

The hue/Saturation layer was used to change the color of the lady and just worked on the womans face as that layer was already masked and it was with Master and a very slight adjustment to the left on the Hue, and a small amount with the Saturation and Lightness, Not much correction at all.

The other masks above the Hue/Sat layer are just clean up things eyes teeth

The Layer 2 is a select all>copy Merged> Paste layer to combine all the layers below it.. Then copied that layer and ran a levels on it.

Layer three is a copy of the leveled layer 2 and it is where the cloning, healing brush was used..

not shown are straightening the picture, cropping, then copying layer 2 and moving it to the top of the stack and lowering the opacity to bring back some of the eye bag wrinkles and skin texture.

You could probably get away with just a good overall levels then mask the lady as shown and run a Hue/Sat layer because the skin was not that far off

I think it took longer to type this than to do it

Let me know if I missed anything or if anything is un-clear

[blkmagic]

Okay, after heeding the helpful comments here. Here's my 2nd attempt.

Still a bit tanned, but that's closer to my sister's skin tone after she put on some makeup. I'm gonna try another one to make her "whiter".
=)

[Daviskw]

They are looking much better…good work.

I look for skin tone that is not a highlight or a shadow… I use the lasso and circle a bit of the tone. I have the lasso set to “Add selection” in the option menu, that way I can make more than one selection. Not large areas just big enough to represent the mid tone of the skin. You use your eye and judgment to pick out the middle tones.

For local contrast I use another curves adjustment but levels or the brightness/contrast adjustment layer can be used.

Often photos are over saturated I believe yours was…so I used a hue/saturation layer to reduce saturation.

Your coming alone nicely … give the different techniques a try… you will soon find one that works for you.

Butch

[blkmagic]

@0lBaldy

Thanks for the detailed explanations! Although I was unable to achieve results similar to your w/ the Master Saturation slider, the 2nd attempt I posted did use a lot of red & yellow channel saturation adjustment. I think the difference may lie on the initial curve/saturation adjustments done to the whole photo.

@Daviskw
Thanks for the encouraging words! As my artistic aptitude neighbors on being negative, I didn't even know which colors are compliment/opposite of which till I read your post. This picture did have a yellow cast on it due to the lighting, the yellow walls, and the subject, so I did try to reduce that a bit w/ a curves adj layer. And thanks for clarifying the selection process.

One more question. It seems that the skin tone I get seems a bit patchy and not as uniform as yours. I did notice that even in the original the skin tones varied quite a bit, prob due to the excessive oil on the skin and lighting. But how can I over come that?