How do you achieve pale skin & bright colors?

[portraitsbytracy]

How do you achieve the look in colored photos of making the skin very pale, yet having the eyes or clothes "pop" with bright color? I've tried using the magic wand and selecting areas to bump up the saturation, but it always looks fake. I'm using PS 6. Any suggestions? I see this most often with close ups of babies or children, where their skin is nearly white, yet their eyes are bright blue, or clothes are brightly colored.

[cfcRebel]

Desaturate the entire image and then use the History brush to recover the eyes perhaps?

[lnterestlng]

Here is a link to a page with a bunch of Photoshop actions on it. Don't know how many of them will work w/ PS6 but you can give them a try. For the effect you want check out the 'Alabaster Portrait' action

http://www.atncentral.com/quicklinks.htm

[queenbee288]

It is mostly done with a curves adjustment. I will give you an example to get you started. Go here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2733520&postcount=1 and down load Beau's look of lomo action. Run the action on a photo but don't flatten it. Go to the curves layer and double click on it. Then save that curves adjustment somewhere like photoshop curves folder or to your documents folder. ( You have the option in the curves dialog to load or save a curve that has already been done.)

Now close out all that the action did to the photo so that you are back at the beginning with your photo . Click on curves and load the one you just saved. It will be applied to your image. That will give you a place to start and shows you what curves can do. Play around with it. You will probably have to decrease the saturation some. If you have any trouble doing these steps just shoot me a pm.

I often download actions and run them and then pick them apart to see what kind of adjustments were made. I have learned a lot this way.

[portraitsbytracy]

It is mostly done with a curves adjustment. I will give you an example to get you started. Go here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2733520&postcount=1 and down load Beau's look of lomo action. Run the action on a photo but don't flatten it. Go to the curves layer and double click on it. Then save that curves adjustment somewhere like photoshop curves folder or to your documents folder. ( You have the option in the curves dialog to load or save a curve that has already been done.)

Now close out all that the action did to the photo so that you are back at the beginning with your photo . Click on curves and load the one you just saved. It will be applied to your image. That will give you a place to start and shows you what curves can do. Play around with it. You will probably have to decrease the saturation some. If you have any trouble doing these steps just shoot me a pm.

I often download actions and run them and then pick them apart to see what kind of adjustments were made. I have learned a lot this way.


Thank you!! I will have to try these, I appreciate your help! Will let you know how it turns out!

[brovic]

you can also use a selective color adjustment layer and then paint the layer mask to reveal or hide certain aspects of it. If you do this a few times with a few different layers you can pretty much get what ever colors hues you would like.

[portraitsbytracy]

you can also use a selective color adjustment layer and then paint the layer mask to reveal or hide certain aspects of it. If you do this a few times with a few different layers you can pretty much get what ever colors hues you would like.

Could you explain the steps on how to do that? I'm still learning PhotoShop and am not real familiar with using layers or masking. (I have PS 6) Thanks!

[brovic]

no prob. if you go to layer...new adjustment layer, and then choose selective color, you can then adjust the colors in the area that you want....but it will adjust the whole photo. Because you are using an adjustment layer your original photo will still be left intact.
so if you look to the adjustment layer, it will have a layer mask...click on that, and make sure you have selected your brush, with black being the foreground color. You can then "hide" the areas of the selective color layer in the places you would like to keep the original color intact from original photo by painting over them with your brush. If you "hide" and area by mistake that you wanted to keep, switch to a white foreground color for your brush, and you can "reveal" it.
Im not very good at explanations, lol....does that make sense to you?...if not i can try to clarify some more

[Sageg]

Slightly overexpose the image to get the skin light, then increase saturation. Curve adjustment as well.

[portraitsbytracy]

no prob. if you go to layer...new adjustment layer, and then choose selective color, you can then adjust the colors in the area that you want....but it will adjust the whole photo. Because you are using an adjustment layer your original photo will still be left intact.
so if you look to the adjustment layer, it will have a layer mask...click on that, and make sure you have selected your brush, with black being the foreground color. You can then "hide" the areas of the selective color layer in the places you would like to keep the original color intact from original photo by painting over them with your brush. If you "hide" and area by mistake that you wanted to keep, switch to a white foreground color for your brush, and you can "reveal" it.
Im not very good at explanations, lol....does that make sense to you?...if not i can try to clarify some more

Slightly overexpose the image to get the skin light, then increase saturation. Curve adjustment as well.

Thank you both for your detailed explanations! I think I need to practice at it a little more, but this is what I've been able to achieve so far...

[DocFrankenstein]

Are you satisfied with what you got?

if you're looking for something different, post a link to a picture.

[portraitsbytracy]

Are you satisfied with what you got?

if you're looking for something different, post a link to a picture.

I think it looks a bit over-exposed, but I'm still learning how to play around in curves. I like the pale look without it appearing over-exposed. Not sure I have an example to show you though...

[DocFrankenstein]

I think when you adjust the curves, it makes it look overexposed.

Try shooting JPEG and overexpose by 2, 3 and 4 stops. No raw and no curves.

[queenbee288]

The photo you posted looks good but in your original post you said you wanted the white skin look.