Gurus: can you help with red/dark faces?

My attempt:

http://www.pbase.com/image/31068441

– USM
– Shadow/Hilight (CS feature)
– Desautrate & Lighten reds
– paint back the deep red in the flowers

Hope that helps.

…Lew..

http://www.pbase.com/dsouzl

"Jasper" wrote in message

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link

below).

I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark

faces.

I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning

the

face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask the layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera on the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

I don’t know which version of Photoshop you have, but in CS there is a very nice adjustment called Shadow/Highlight (Image>Adjustmens>Shadow/Highlight). I think that’s working very well on your pix. Make sure you check the ‘Show More Options’

Good Luck

Hi
Try copying the red channel to a new layer.
Invert the layer and set blending mode to overlay

Jasper wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link below). I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark faces. I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning the face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask the layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera on the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:18:24 -0400, "Jasper"
wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link below). I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark faces. I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning the face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask the layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera on the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

Red? I am either losing my color perception or the monitor has had it LOL! They lean more towards green than red, to me. Use curves. Learn them, they are powerful tools that work great for corrections like that.

"Jasper" wrote in message

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link below). I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark faces. I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning the face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask the layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera on the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

The faces are not red. Your image is underexposed. Apply a levels adjustment layer then move the midpoint to 1.25 and the highlights to about 204 and see what the real colors are.

If you’re getting a lot of red there is something wrong with your monitor calibration.

—
"Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking." –P. J. O’Rourke http://www.bobhatch.com

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

"Jasper" wrote in message

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link below). I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark faces. I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning the face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask the layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera on the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

The faces are not red. Your image is underexposed. Apply a levels

adjustment

layer then move the midpoint to 1.25 and the highlights to about 204 and

see

what the real colors are.

If you’re getting a lot of red there is something wrong with your monitor calibration.

—
"Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking." –P. J. O’Rourke http://www.bobhatch.com

Thanks. Your corrections do help. I guess I have to learn to read a histogram much better. I generally assume that I shouldn’t do much to Levels as long as the histogram stretches all the way across. So much more to learn.

However, when I do that, the complexions still look a bit too ruddy for me. Is that not red that I am seeing? Someone else saw green, but I can’t quite compute that yet. 🙂 I’ll work on it though.

Thanks a lot.

Jasper

Thanks Lew. That combination worked pretty well for me, at least from Shadow/Highlight on down. I hadn’t tried the lighten part and that did help. Are you saying that you would use the USM first?

Jasper

"dsouzl" wrote in message

My attempt:

http://www.pbase.com/image/31068441

– USM
– Shadow/Hilight (CS feature)
– Desautrate & Lighten reds
– paint back the deep red in the flowers

Hope that helps.

..Lew..

http://www.pbase.com/dsouzl

"V1nc3nt" wrote in message

"Jasper" wrote in message

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link

below).

I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark

faces.

I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning

the

face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask

the

layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera

on

the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

I don’t know which version of Photoshop you have, but in CS there is a

very

nice adjustment called Shadow/Highlight

(Image>Adjustmens>Shadow/Highlight).

I think that’s working very well on your pix. Make sure you check the

‘Show

More Options’

Good Luck

Thanks. Just got CS and getting used to Shadow/Highlight. It does help.

Jasper

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

The faces are not red. Your image is underexposed. Apply a levels adjustment layer then move the midpoint to 1.25 and the highlights to about 204 and see what the real colors are.

Correction. Your image is "overexposed".

If you’re getting a lot of red there is something wrong with your monitor calibration.

—
"Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking." –P. J. O’Rourke http://www.bobhatch.com

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

The faces are not red. Your image is underexposed. Apply a levels adjustment layer then move the midpoint to 1.25 and the highlights to about 204 and see what the real colors are.

Correction. Your image is "overexposed".

Crap, I’m too used to film.

Dark film image. Overexposed.
Dark digital image. Underexposed.

Light film image lacking detail. Underexposed.
Light digital image lacking detail. Overexposed.

Image was underexposed. I need a vacation.
—
"Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking." –P. J. O’Rourke http://www.bobhatch.com

I have never done this before, so I may have done something wrong. I copied the channel, made a new layer, and then pasted, inverted and blended. The results were not good, so I assume that I made a wrong turn. Wouldn’t be the first time. 🙂

Jasper

"ramcan" wrote in message

Hi
Try copying the red channel to a new layer.
Invert the layer and set blending mode to overlay

Jasper wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link

below).

I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark

faces.

I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning

the

face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask

the

layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera

on

the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

"ZONED!" wrote in message

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:18:24 -0400, "Jasper"
wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link

below).

I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark

faces.

I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning

the

face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask

the

layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera

on

the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

Red? I am either losing my color perception or the monitor has had it LOL! They lean more towards green than red, to me. Use curves. Learn them, they are powerful tools that work great for corrections like that.

Thanks. I can do the basics with curves, but you’re right about needing to learn a lot more.

Jasper

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:18:24 -0400, "Jasper" wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link below). I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark faces. I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning the face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask the layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera on the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

I know this is a Photoshop group – but here we go. This is a badly failed photo. Learn and make it better next time – when I see that – things inside my skull says – backlit – inside Gazebo – nice shot but nothing if you leave out the Flash – just the sort of things it is meant for. I might if too far away set the camera, film or digital with a spot meter and place the spot right on the forehead of one of the persons, otherwise – garbage-in garbage-out.

hosts is at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
and stinger at http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00 If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp

"nesredep egrob" <Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40> wrote in message

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:18:24 -0400, "Jasper" wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link

below).

I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark

faces.

I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning

the

face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask

the

layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera

on

the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

I know this is a Photoshop group – but here we go. This is a badly failed

photo.

Learn and make it better next time – when I see that – things inside my

skull

says – backlit – inside Gazebo – nice shot but nothing if you leave out

the

Flash – just the sort of things it is meant for. I might if too far away

set the

camera, film or digital with a spot meter and place the spot right on the forehead of one of the persons, otherwise – garbage-in garbage-out.

I can appreciate that but can’t plead guilty to taking the photo and would have used a flash if I had — not that I claim to be too great at photography either, but I would have done that at least. Trying to make the most of things. My daughter is the bride.

How can anyone be at lat 115?

Jasper

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

The faces are not red. Your image is underexposed. Apply a levels adjustment layer then move the midpoint to 1.25 and the highlights to about 204 and see what the real colors are.

Correction. Your image is "overexposed".

Crap, I’m too used to film.

Dark film image. Overexposed.
Dark digital image. Underexposed.

Light film image lacking detail. Underexposed.
Light digital image lacking detail. Overexposed.

Image was underexposed. I need a vacation.
—

Thanks for that. Glad to know I’m not the only who has these moments. lol

So, you were right the first time, and, as posted elsewhere, your fix helped.

"Jasper" wrote in message

Thanks. Your corrections do help. I guess I have to learn to read a histogram much better. I generally assume that I shouldn’t do much to Levels as long as the histogram stretches all the way across. So much more to learn.

However, when I do that, the complexions still look a bit too ruddy for me. Is that not red that I am seeing? Someone else saw green, but I can’t quite compute that yet. 🙂 I’ll work on it though.

On my monitor that is calibrated with a spyder the complexions are a bit to the yellow/green.

Try this one.

Duplicate the layer. Select the top layer then go to
Image>Adjustment>Equalize. Without making any other change to the image go to Edit>Fade Equalize and move the slider to about 50%. Next put a Levels adjustment layer on the top layer and move the Mid tones to 1.10 and the highlights to 240. New Color Balance adjustment layer and move Cyan to -2 Magenta to -3 and Yellow to +5. See how you like that.

Now the difference might be that I use sRGB for digital images. Not Adobe RGB.
—
"Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking." –P. J. O’Rourke http://www.bobhatch.com

"Jasper" wrote in message

How can anyone be at lat 115?

Jasper

That’s his lon. Check his coordinates again.
—
"Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking." –P. J. O’Rourke http://www.bobhatch.com

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 23:24:59 -0400, "Jasper" wrote:

"nesredep egrob" <Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40> wrote in message

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:18:24 -0400, "Jasper" wrote:

Hi Folks

I know that some of you sometimes look at posted photos and make suggestions. I am hoping that you will help with this one too (link

below).

I have a lot of images something like this — with somewhat red/dark

faces.

I have been able to improve some by desaturating red and then lightning

the

face a little using curves. I pull the curve out from the middle, mask

the

layer completely, and paint (unmask) the facial area. As I said, it has worked better on some photos than others. Although this is a copy of the original, my method did not work well on this photo and some others. In fact, my method worked better with photos taken from a different camera

on

the same day. That lot was not quite so saturated.

TIA, Jasper

http://www.anvilcloud.net/pics/gazebo.jpg

I know this is a Photoshop group – but here we go. This is a badly failed

photo.

Learn and make it better next time – when I see that – things inside my

skull

says – backlit – inside Gazebo – nice shot but nothing if you leave out

the

Flash – just the sort of things it is meant for. I might if too far away

set the

camera, film or digital with a spot meter and place the spot right on the forehead of one of the persons, otherwise – garbage-in garbage-out.

I can appreciate that but can’t plead guilty to taking the photo and would have used a flash if I had — not that I claim to be too great at photography either, but I would have done that at least. Trying to make the most of things. My daughter is the bride.

How can anyone be at lat 115?

Jasper

There is no-one there to my knowledge

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00 If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp If more curious look it up on Google latitude+perth+Australia

Hi Jasper,

Typically, sharpening is the last thing most people do. In this particular case, since it was a small image, saved for web viewing, it didn’t really matter.

This is actually quite an interesting thread! I’ve tried a couple of other suggestions and many people have valid points. More than a few ways to skin a cat, I suppose!

Anyway, congrats on your daughter’s wedding. They look like a very nice couple.

…Lew..

"Jasper" wrote in message

Thanks Lew. That combination worked pretty well for me, at least from Shadow/Highlight on down. I hadn’t tried the lighten part and that did

help.

Are you saying that you would use the USM first?

Jasper

"Bob Hatch" wrote in message

"Jasper" wrote in message

Thanks. Your corrections do help. I guess I have to learn to read a histogram much better. I generally assume that I shouldn’t do much to Levels as long as the histogram stretches all the way across. So much more to learn.

However, when I do that, the complexions still look a bit too ruddy for me. Is that not red that I am seeing? Someone else saw green, but I can’t quite compute that yet. 🙂 I’ll work on it though.

On my monitor that is calibrated with a spyder the complexions are a bit

to

the yellow/green.

Try this one.

Duplicate the layer. Select the top layer then go to
Image>Adjustment>Equalize. Without making any other change to the image go to Edit>Fade Equalize and move the slider to about 50%. Next put a Levels adjustment layer on the top layer and move the Mid tones to 1.10 and the highlights to 240. New Color Balance adjustment layer and move Cyan to -2 Magenta to -3 and Yellow to +5. See how you like that.

Now the difference might be that I use sRGB for digital images. Not Adobe RGB.

I am obviously not on the same level as you. I only have an LCD monitor (I actually work with a laptop — want to add a big RGB but the money keeps going elsewhere first 🙂 on which I have done some backward calibration. IOW I have tried to make my monitor more or less match the printed result. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough for my purposes. So, I applied your adjustments, printed them, and the faces certainly looked more natural that what I was coming up with before. And that’s really great! But the darker areas were still reddish to me. So I again desaturated red some and also lightened it (as dsouzl had suggested) and those results were very good to my eye.

I thought that the general consensus was to use the Adobe 1998 space? I had it set to sRGB and changed it after reading a few opinions.

Anyway, you’re great. Never used Equalizations before, but this was a useful series of steps.

"nesredep egrob" <Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40> wrote in message

How can anyone be at lat 115?

Jasper

There is no-one there to my knowledge

T’was late 😉 oh dyslexic one from rednu nwod.

My other daughter spent several months on the other coast a couple of years ago. How’s the weather there? We’re having a coolish summer here so far at 42 58N 82 20W (approx), which I am not minding. It’s only supposed to go up to 15C today — very odd weather indeed. It would normally be high 20s in good weather and much hotter in bad.

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 20:37:23 -0700, "Bob Hatch" wrote:

Now the difference might be that I use sRGB for digital images. Not Adobe RGB.

Quite probably.sRGB is a narrower gamut RGB than Adobe.

—

Hecate

veni, vidi, reliqui