red skin tone?

[luv2sign20]

I have to say before I ask my question... that the only thing that I have done to this picture is the cropping and adding a little contrast... so here is my question...I am concerned that Ryan has a red tone to his skin... is that something that I can/should fix? here is an example. I know I need to sharpen their eyes and stuff... but like I said...this image is pretty raw. Thanks for your time!

[victorov90]

If you have lightroom, there is a slider for white balance. Try to tweak it to your tastes. Answering your question: yes you have to fix the skin tone! Not just this image, but everytime you take pictures you have to make sure the skin tone is right. Hope that helps.

[Alexajlex]

White balance fix is a great starting point and in order to get just the red out and sill keep the image alive I recommend using the color balance tool in PS to work on the red and yellows individually.

Generally when I look at most pics I tend to subtract about 15-20% red.
I subtract the red via color balance working on the highlights to begin with.

My work flow is very similar to this RetouchPro tutorial:

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=310

Use the tutorial as a guide because naturally the example they used is extra baked to really make the before and after obvious. Adjust the settings accordingly based on the image you are working with.

[Alexajlex]

Not sure if this was shot in RAW (I read that you said that "this image is pretty raw" and I took that as straight from the camera with little to no adjustments made).

If this was shot as a JPG:

In addition if you have Phostoshop CS3 you can configure ACR to open JPGs (Edit-Preferences-File Handling).

This will give you the WB slider just like in LR (and a all the other normal ACR tools).
Granted a RAW file will have more latitude with adjustments but you will still great a heck of a lot of control by using ACR for JPGs vs just using the tools in PS.

Hold down the Shift key and you can open the JPG as a smart object which gives you great leverage inside of PS for and allows you to leverage non destructive effects

[Alexajlex]

Here is a quick take on it:

Before:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/alexajlex/POTN/22.jpg

After:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/alexajlex/POTN/22_Edit3.jpg

Process:

ACR:
Saturation

Red +5
Orange +20
Yellow+5


Luminance

Red +5
Orange +20
Yellow+5


Exposure:

-0.35
Brightness:
+55
Vibrance:
-20



In PS CS3:

Local contrast (unsharpen mask = 15% radius 100)
Unsharpen mask to sharpen 100% radius .5 pixels)
Color Balance - Shadows - 15 Cyan


This is pretty much a natural look based on what I see them as in my mind.

Of course there may be some slight adjustments that need to be made that you can do based on the fact that you saw them in real life and you also noted what the light conditions were like.

[highway0691]

It doesn't seem too red to me. The above edit is a bit on the pale/cold side - A slight adjustment is all that may be needed - if any.

There's dozens of ways to do this but for such a simple adjustment a this - Photoshop - the sponge tool (desaturate) applied only to the face and neck of the fella is all that needs to be done(see below) I've also added a slight vignette. It would be overkill to apply it or any other adjustment to the whole photo. A bit of red actually brings warmth to the photo.

regards

damian

[Alexajlex]

highway0691 - I know my edit looks a bit cold (almost heading towards lomo) however, I checked your pic on my Spyder calibrated system and it still has quite a lot of red in it.

Is your system calibrated?

[luv2sign20]

Thanks so much guys for your help with this.... What I ended up doing is in raw I brought my temperature numbers to 5900/-27 and then I went to my color hue and took the reds to +35... what do you think?

[luv2sign20]

The weird thing is... there is a bit more color on my picture before I upload them to this site. This picture seems a little cold to me now when I uploaded it here... but it looks great when I open it up in ps3.....

[tutumon]

The weird thing is... there is a bit more color on my picture before I upload them to this site. This picture seems a little cold to me now when I uploaded it here... but it looks great when I open it up in ps3.....


I've noticed this too. Not sure why..

[highway0691]

highway0691 - I know my edit looks a bit cold (almost heading towards lomo) however, I checked your pic on my Spyder calibrated system and it still has quite a lot of red in it.

Is your system calibrated?

Yes it is - but not to a high degree. It's probaly a preference thing, I quite like warmth in skin tones but not red.:oops: Also here in Australia we're always a bit red from the sun. Europeans esp this time of year can look a bit pale - no offence though.;)
cheers

damian

[Alexajlex]

Thanks so much guys for your help with this.... What I ended up doing is in raw I brought my temperature numbers to 5900/-27 and then I went to my color hue and took the reds to +35... what do you think?

Skin is improved but the wall has a green tint to it.
I still think there is a bit too much red in their skin tone but that is just me :)

[Matt30D]

Is this ok?

[Matt30D]

Here it is...diding is great in PS3!

[luv2sign20]

Here it is...diding is great in PS3!

I love it! Do you mind telling me what you did? I don't know if Imentioned it earlier, but incase I didn't I use PS3 as well....

[Matt30D]

Here is another one with a vignette.

[Matt30D]

I turned dow the saturation, and upped the exposure and the gamma...then I dodged the eyes (just around the black hole) and lightened her hair up. I added a gaussian blur and created a mask to erase the blur in the eyes, under the nose and the ears...I will post another with a vignette....

[Matt30D]

Here is one with a vignette!

[Alexajlex]

Here is one with a vignette!

Looks good man.

[highway0691]

Not really taken on the above edit. Skin looks too plastic for my liking.

cheers

damian