HELP: Adjusting newborns red skin tones

[ultravista]

My son was born on April 2nd, I have roughly 800 images to sort through and I've noticed many of his pictures show a deep red cast in the skin (not pink). I don't know what caused the skin to be so red and it's in need of correction in Photoshop.

I would like to develop a quick process (action maybe) that would lighten the red into a more pleasing pink or similar skin color. The rest of the image is good, colors are correct but the little guy looks like a boiled lobster, not good.

What is the easiest way to correct / lighten his skin tones without altering the remainder of the image while using an UNcomplicated method. I don't want to mask each image or spend a lot of time with each one to simply lighten the skin.

I played with the levels (not auto levels) and it seems to work but it lightens the entire image, something I don't need to do.

An action would be great, something to transform the deep red into a more pleasing color.

Help please !!!

[roger_ele]

Hey, or post one so that we can help figure out why it is coming out so red ... then of course, automate!

Roger

[ultravista]

I'll have to resize an image, not at the PS computer right now. The link to skin tone fix does appear to be what I'm looking for but need to have it automated for 100 or so pictures.

To understand, my little guy was pretty red when he was born (and still is a bit) and I'd like to make it no so obvious. He should be a nice pink color.

What I need to do is adjust the overall redness of the image.

[ultravista]

Here's an example of the my little red man. Yes, he was crying and it did exagerate the redness but hey, it's a good example.

How can I automate a process to remove some of the red, not all? I really want to lighten it up to a more pleasing pinkish.

The image doesn't do him justice, it was resized in half (5MP image) and saved as a low rez jpg.

http://www.ultravista.com/users/DSCN7062-1-S.jpg

[Stephen M]

Hi "UV" - here are some thoughts on the pic.

The camera has a fair bit of noise (colour noise and banding in both luminance and hue/saturation data).

To address the colour noise, have a look at this link (to cut to the chase, dupe the background, set the layer to color blend mode and give it a blur of around 2-5 pixels or whatever).

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...ctremoval.html

One can keep the sRGB embedded camera tag, but I assigned ColorMatch RGB as I wanted to lighten the pic and I may as well do it here.

On the colour correction, I would recommend a channel mixer adjustment layer, set to -

R = did not change anything

G = r+30 g+70 b0

B = r+30 g0 +70b

Unaltered red (cyan), reduced green (magenta) to 70% and blended 30% of red into it to keep the figure at 100%. Similar for the blue (yellow).

One can set this adjustment layer to color blend mode from normal if you do not want to affect overall brightness.

Selective application of this global correction via masks or whatever would probably be required.

One could also use selective colour or other commands, but the channel mixer is nice so I like to trot it out now and again as it does not get a lot of press. I often use the apply image command instead of channel mixer, as it is more powerful but not as interactive.

Regards,

Stephen Marsh.

[Flora]

Hi ultravista!

First of all congratulations for you new baby!!!!!

After running the Red Baby Action which I wrote for your little 'red man', you could use: Selective Color to adjust the colouring and Air Brush and Clone Tool to remove the biggest blemishes ....

and here is your little man .... not red anymore!

[Flora]

.... and here comes the Action ....
Please let me know if it worked for you ...

Btw, I use Photoshop 7....

[wardpics]

Hi, I'm new here...I used this action and got great results on my red baby subject!

Big thanks!

[swarbees]

My daughter is due in April----I just love Flora!!

[Rohape]

Originally Posted by Flora

.... and here comes the Action ....
Please let me know if it worked for you ...

Btw, I use Photoshop 7....

So generous, thanks Flora!

[nevrothiel]

this is great, thanks for sharing!!!

[Flora]

Hi

wardpics
swarbees
Rohape
nevrothiel...

Sorry for not having reacted earlier to your kind Posts ...

I have been 'off' for quite a long time ... but I am back and wanted to say a big thank you for your kind comments!!

[Nan]

I missed seeing this one. That's quite remarkable Flora!
You seem to have a fix for just about anything.
Nan

[artmanphoto]

I tried using the Red Baby action and the baby's face looks like mush. I must be doing something wrong. Can someone please help me?

Thanks!

[edgework]

Originally Posted by artmanphoto

I tried using the Red Baby action and the baby's face looks like mush. I must be doing something wrong. Can someone please help me?

Thanks!

All the action does is some fancy moves to put white in softlight mode on top of the red areas. Just make a layer, put it in soft light mode and paint white on it.

[artmanphoto]

Thanks for your reply. I have attached 2 images one before running the action and one after running the action. The baby has red on her cheeks and around her mouth. The action "stop" instructions to use a black brush on the layer mask and paint everything EXCEPT the red areas.

I tried using a white brush as you mentioned but nothing changed.

[edgework]

I meant paint white into a soft light layer INSTEAD of running the action. The instructions at the point you got to are to mask out everything but the face and skin. My approach avoids the mask altogether. Just paint white into the layer. It doesn't matter as long as you get the result you want.

[artmanphoto]

Originally Posted by edgework

I meant paint white into a soft light layer INSTEAD of running the action. The instructions at the point you got to are to mask out everything but the face and skin. My approach avoids the mask altogether. Just paint white into the layer. It doesn't matter as long as you get the result you want.

Thanks - I'll try what you say.

[artmanphoto]

Edgework;

I tried what you said about creating a new layer, changing the blend mode to Soft Light then painting with a white brush - it works great!!

Thanks again for your help.

[opheliajane]

hi i tried using red baby action and it made my photo look like a negative!! can anyone help!