Skin Tone once again

[cliffculp]

I am a rank beginner. I have been using PS Elements for about 6 months and have learned a great deal about layers, levels, painting on masks, etc. but am still having difficulty with skin tones. I have read some of the discussions on this forum but, frankly, a lot of it is over my head. I thought it might be helpful if I could post an image I have been working on and then see if I could follow along with any suggestions you might have. The image is of my 96 year old parents and I would like to present them with an 8x10 picture of this image.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cliff Culp

[cliffculp]

I realized after I posted the image that it was very low resolution. I am going to try again.

Cliff

[Xaran]

Looks fine to me as it is.

Christine

[cliffculp]

Looks fine to me as it is.

Christine

Thanks for the quick response. Perhaps I am being too critical. I am positing my efforts at cropping, blurring the background and trying to liven up the image.

[Ed_L]

I made a duplicate of the image, then I used the blue channel to make a momochrome version. Made a new blank layer, set to "Color" blending mode. Painted with 227R, 194B, 124Y, just on your mother's face very quickly, and reduced the opacity to 75%. Then I selected her face, and dragged the selection onto the original image, reducing the opacity to 60%. I did not make any other changes, although I would have in order to bring everything into sync, if I were doing the work myself. This is [U]only for the skintones. We've had a skintone chart posted several times on this site, and I'm posting it again, if it will help.

[Vikki]

I thought it needed a color cast adjustment to warm it up. If you add a layers adjustment layer, you can adjust the red and green (bring the right sliders in towards the left).
I made a very slight contrast adjustment as well.

[cliffculp]

Thanks for the response. I will try to duplicate what you have done.

Cliff