How to do this? (fashion skin color)

[aemosha]

Hello everyone...
I'm new to this forum I would like first to thank you for the great resources I found here
Anyone knows what is that is technique we can used to change the skin color to be like this?
thank you
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p.s: photo by the photographer: Lénaïc Sanz

[klev]

Re: How to do this? (fashion skin color)

In terms of a procedural workflow, it can take some practice to get comfortable with the available tools. You're looking for a few things. First of all the saturation is low, yet it's not totally flat in its coloring. Compared to where an image might start, you'll see darker skintone values that are somewhat closer together, with the brightness values being red > green > blue. Ratio can vary depending on workspace, but you won't see that ratio break in any space that makes sense for a photo editing workflow.

I would mostly use channel mixer and curves for brightness range, and color balance, channel mixer, and hue saturation to achieve the desired saturation range and color balance. You'll have to deal with smaller details like the brightness of the eyes and cheekbone shadows as a separate pass of smaller adjustments.

Some things to watch out for are making the skin too bright, getting too focused on smaller details that do not yet match when making broader adjustments, and refusal to make regional adjustments. As a regional example, her shoulder and back are angled differently relative to the light source, and I'm sure they were darkened somewhat from the initial processed shot. If you were trying to tweak the skintone overall without making a concession for that, you would drive yourself crazy. The background may also throw you off. For example if you have a brighter background, it may both kick back more light and play a trick on your peripheral vision. Human vision is highly comparative, and sometimes it will really mess you up.

I hope this helps.

[aemosha]

Re: How to do this? (fashion skin color)

Thank you for this answer, I agree with you that the procedural workflow is not that easy to get such a result... I tried a lot to get that look but not yet arrived

[Shoku]

Re: How to do this? (fashion skin color)

A different image, with reduced saturation and increased contrast by using quick curve adjustment in LAB and a 2 second swipe with the history tool for the lips.

[klev]

Re: How to do this? (fashion skin color)

A different image, with reduced saturation and increased contrast by using quick curve adjustment in LAB and a 2 second swipe with the history tool for the lips.

Bleh I really dislike LAB as an adjustment space due to its color instability. It's really more designed as a reference to describe the visual appearance.

Thank you for this answer, I agree with you that the procedural workflow is not that easy to get such a result... I tried a lot to get that look but not yet arrived

Well you have those points of variation that I mentioned. The color engines used to power photoshop and most similar applications have a lot of difficulty with these kinds of adjustments, partly due to the nature of your workspace. You are making adjustments in a similar space to that which you use for viewing purposes, so adjustments on saturation and color balance often produce some amount of monochromatic convergence along an axis other than r=g=b. What you really want is a certain range of saturation and hue change scaled well across a much narrower range of color than the original. I was going to say a narrower band, but that wouldn't have been correct. Do you have any non-sensitive images so that I can see where you're stuck?

[Shoku]

Re: How to do this? (fashion skin color)

Bleh I really dislike LAB as an adjustment space due to its color instability. It's really more designed as a reference to describe the visual appearance.

Well, as you can see it works. You may not like my result but it effectively reduced saturation while increasing contrast slightly (like in the other image) and was finished in about 10 seconds.

If you know how to use all ten channels (RGB, CMYK, LAB) your retouching can be more precise and take less time. LAB is great for many things, you just need to know how to use it, and when to not use it. For this type of correction it is faster and works better than the other two color spaces.