Skin tone correction help

[m_mphotography]

I seem to always get my skin tones all screwed up in post production. My tendency is for the pics to look too orangy or too yellow....any pointers on how to color correct for skin tone?? I've read about "color correcting by the numbers, but that doesn't come real easy to me....How do YOU do it?? advise is most welcome! See an example of my bad skin tone
here...http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=83085

[AndrewCCM]

Look at a plugin called iCorrect Portrait. That little gem has helped me a lot. Certainly gets me in the ballpark on occasion.

[MicWayWal]

Marleny,

I am guessing you are shooting in JPEG?
Are you using a calibrated monitor?

I noticed your camera capture settings:
-The saturation is set WAY too high.
-The sharpness is set Way too high.
-You also have the white balance set to shade. Was it really in the shade outside?
These settings could look good in the preview screen or monitor but will not print well.


On my monitor the only one that looks good is the B&W version.
Can you post an original image without post processing? Just crop and send with no adjustments.

[m_mphotography]

Micheal,

Actually I shoot only in RAW, but I am guessing that I must overdo it in ACR when I process...maybe I'm using too high in "blacks and contrast" that it throws my skin colors out of whack. Here is the original, without any postprocessing except converting to JPG, and colorspace to sRGB, and of course resizing. This picture I worked on my laptop, which I've calibrated only using Adobe Gamma.

[m_mphotography]

Just for kicks, I'm posting up in three steps...obviously i screwed this one up in CS3...check it out...
SOOC

Post ACR only, adjusted blacks and contrast, a little bit of scurve added

post CS3 work. I have to go back and look at my steps, but for some reason the skin now looks all patchy....and orangey?

[MicWayWal]

On this forum there is a lot of emphsis on major Post Processing adjusments with all kinds of severe actions for your photographs. But I use that on about 2% of my work. I do make some minor adjustments in levels, curves, and color balance. Most of my PP work is in retouching people's faces to make them appear more natural as the human eye sees it.

It is my opinion, that very few major PP adjustments actually work to create a better image. Most of the time people are trying to hide some weakness in their image.

When you have a beautiful, simple image, cropped like this, I don't think you need to make major adjustments. Maybe enhance the strength of the image, like a little eye enhancement and blend the skin tone a touch. What you have done with your PP is to detract from the simplicity of the image so much you can not get a good print of a beautiful child. I am a big fan of less is more.

When I don't have everything fully color balanced on my end, I don't adjust the color. I usually mess it up to the point you can not get good colors on the print. I let the professional lab make any necessary adjustments.

Are you using a professional lab or some local camera store like Wal-Mart, Walgreens, or Wolf? That will make a difference. But not if you have over processed it.

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by m_mphotography

...obviously i screwed this one up in CS3...

Maybe you understand the quote from Pogo, "We have met the enemy... and he is us"

[m_mphotography]

Okay, I've gone back to my CS3 workflow on this pic, and maybe figured out my problem....after I was done with my work, I added a soft blur layer, which saturates my colors even more. If I change the layer style to "luminosity" it looks funky..so I don't know how to fix that problem...
anyway, here is the before soft blur...

here is post soft blur with soft light layer style

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by m_mphotography

Okay, I've gone back to my CS3 workflow on this pic, and maybe figured out my problem....after I was done with my work, I added a soft blur layer, which saturates my colors even more...

NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The color problems occur on the FIRST step you indicated from the original "Post ACR only, adjusted blacks and contrast, a little bit of scurve added". A blur layer will soften your saturation. Your adjustments are too heavy handed from the start. Don't mess with the color at all. Just retouch the skin and eyes and print it.

[ngoduyviet]

Originally Posted by MicWayWal

NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The color problems occur on the FIRST step you indicated from the original "Post ACR only, adjusted blacks and contrast, a little bit of scurve added". A blur layer will soften your saturation. Your adjustments are too heavy handed from the start. Don't mess with the color at all. Just retouch the skin and eyes and print it.

Yup, yup and yup.

If you want to pop, adjust it slightly. Over adjusting the curve can do destructive things to your colors/tones/shadows.

[MicWayWal]

Marleny,

If I may, could I humbly make a recommendation for you. You are starting out in photography. Don't jump too fast into the major Post Processing adjustments you see here on this forum. First learn the craft of photography. Learn how to see light and shadow. Learn how to get perfect exposures. Learn what you camera can do well and what it can't do well. Based on your posting history, I would recommend you spend more time, right now, learning the craft of photography. Go to some workshops, read all you can, get someone near you to mentor you. Learn how to produce with a camera what you see and more importantly, what you feel.

Too many times, especially in this digital age of instant photography, everyone wants to jump to a level of photography that is so advanced, that you don't understand what is really going on and why it is not working for you. Sometimes you stumble on something and don't fully understand why it does work for you.

I think you have an eye for photography, based on the wedding images you posted earlier. Don't think you are wasting your time. But you do need to start with the basics and fully understand what you are doing.

We all first had to learn to crawl, then walk, and after some practice you can run.

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by MicWayWal

On this forum there is a lot of emphsis on major Post Processing adjusments with all kinds of severe actions for your photographs. But I use that on about 2% of my work. I do make some minor adjustments in levels, curves, and color balance. Most of my PP work is in retouching people's faces to make them appear more natural as the human eye sees it.

It is my opinion, that very few major PP adjustments actually work to create a better image. Most of the time people are trying to hide some weakness in their image.

I agree with this completely.

BTW: That plugin I suggested is a color correction plugin only. It is not a "retoucher" like many use.

[barP]

actually, guys, the soft blur layer thing does jack up the saturation. marleny, let me guess...you're using a guassian blur with high radius value, then changing the layer blend mode to soft light, yes? it produces a nice, crushed shadow look with some "glow", but the penalty is heavy saturation. you can use the fade command immediately to pull back, or you can reduce the layer opacity to help some, but there are other, better options.

as someone pointed out, setting your camera to neutral is a good idea. you should also start to learn curves if you want to do this much processing...and i mean more than just throwing on an "s-curve." oh, and setting the black and white points shouldn't have much, if any impact on saturation.

good luck!

wp.

[m_mphotography]

Originally Posted by MicWayWal

Marleny,

...Based on your posting history, I would recommend you spend more time, right now, learning the craft of photography. Go to some workshops, read all you can, get someone near you to mentor you. Learn how to produce with a camera what you see and more importantly, what you feel.....

Thanks for your recommendations. So, what are you seeing that I'm missing looking at my posting history?? lighting?? composition?? focus?? or do I have all three to work on??

You are right, I've only been seriously doing photography since end of April and I'm really enjoying it. I HAVE and CONTINUE to do LOTS of reading...is any of it sticking?? i thought it was, but maybe I'm just biased looking at my images. So, it's good to have other sets of eyes looking at my work and being honest. Honestly, don't know who to ask to mentor me, as I'm not real sure that the photographers in my area would want to mentor someone that wants to come into their field...maybe I need to look for a serious hobbyist.

again, thanks for your input. Hopefully I can improve. I'm not giving up on the post processing though...I am a mom of two under the age of three, so I can multitask pretty well :)