Skin tones

"The Data Rat" wrote in message

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale

and

washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this

way

in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a

bit?

I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set

on

15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was

tan.

The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle

one

was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and

shows

how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.
Any help will be appreciated!

Your daughter looks pale because in the three photos she is next to mid-eastern girls!

Stephan

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 17:47:48 GMT, "Stephan"
wrote:

"The Data Rat" wrote in message

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale

and

washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this

way

in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a

bit?

I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set

on

15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was

tan.

The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle

one

was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and

shows

how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.
Any help will be appreciated!

Your daughter looks pale because in the three photos she is next to mid-eastern girls!

Stephan

LMFAO !!!!

//Õ¿Õ\\

DosBoss57

Imagine all the people living life in peace !

"The Data Rat" wrote in
news:M3fjb.76091$:

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale and washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin.

(snipped)

As has been pointed out, don’t let her stand next to darker skinned people. Another easy method to correct the problem is to have her put on some make- up before you shoot her picture. Makes her do the work and saves you time!

—-== Posted via Newsfeed.Com – Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==—- http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups —= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers – Total Privacy via Encryption =—

"The Data Rat" wrote in message

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale

and

washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this

way

in digital photo’s, not 35mm.)

Snipped

The top picture is a Caucasian male, the middle is a Somoan female and the last one is a half Asian female. Let’s just say that all of her friends have darker skin than she does. Is there a way to add color and warmth to skin tones.

I think there is quite a lot you can do with the pictures you posted on your web site. I don’t know what program you are using but if it is Photoshop you can make a lot of difference using curves, most easily if you convert into CMYK first. If you then use the colour sampler to measure the CMYK values on one of the lighter parts of the face (I’m assuming, probably wrongly, she hasn’t got much makeup on) and then use curves to alter them and change the colour. In general, for caucasians the cyan should be about a fifth to a third as much as the magenta, the yellow should equal or be slightly more than the magenta. (You can ignore the black as it doesn’t contribute to colour). The magenta is too high in all of yours.

Getting those values better can make quite a bit of difference. I did this with your three and I can post them to you if you wish though just because I think they are better doesn’t mean you will.

Dan Margulis has written here and there about improving faces and you can find some of it on the web or in his book Professional Photoshop.

jf

"The Data Rat" wrote in message

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale

and

washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this

way

in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a

bit?

I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set

on

15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was

tan.

The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle

one

was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and

shows

how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.
Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks

Thank you for answering the question!!!
wrote in message

I think there is quite a lot you can do with the pictures you posted on

your

web site. I don’t know what program you are using but if it is Photoshop

you

can make a lot of difference using curves, most easily if you convert into CMYK first. If you then use the colour sampler to measure the CMYK values

on

one of the lighter parts of the face (I’m assuming, probably wrongly, she hasn’t got much makeup on) and then use curves to alter them and change

the

colour. In general, for caucasians the cyan should be about a fifth to a third as much as the magenta, the yellow should equal or be slightly more than the magenta. (You can ignore the black as it doesn’t contribute to colour). The magenta is too high in all of yours.

Getting those values better can make quite a bit of difference. I did this with your three and I can post them to you if you wish though just because

I

think they are better doesn’t mean you will.

Dan Margulis has written here and there about improving faces and you can find some of it on the web or in his book Professional Photoshop.
jf

"The Data Rat" wrote in message

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale

and

washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this

way

in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a

bit?

I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set

on

15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was

tan.

The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle

one

was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and

shows

how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.
Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks

I had this exact same problem a while back, and a particular *free* plug-in was recommended to me.. the NIK Warmth/Brilliance plug-in available here:
http://www.nikonfotoshare.co.uk/Registration/Login.asp

You have to register to the nikon site, but anyone can register for a free 30 day trial, which takes all of ten seconds to do. You’re then able to download the working plug-in (*it* is not a 30 day trial) free of charge. After registering, go to your shoebox, choose "Windows Download", and voila…

I’ve had tremendous success with brightening skin-tones using this plug- in… I imagine it’ll help you.

Best,
Dan

"The Data Rat" wrote in
news:M3fjb.76091$:

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale and washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this way in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a bit? I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set on 15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was tan. The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle one was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and shows how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks

Thanks! Unfortunately, that link is dead and I get redirected to Nikon’s main site.

"Thomas Holdstrom" wrote in message

I had this exact same problem a while back, and a particular *free* plug-in was recommended to me.. the NIK Warmth/Brilliance plug-in available here:
http://www.nikonfotoshare.co.uk/Registration/Login.asp

You have to register to the nikon site, but anyone can register for a free 30 day trial, which takes all of ten seconds to do. You’re then able to download the working plug-in (*it* is not a 30 day trial) free of charge. After registering, go to your shoebox, choose "Windows Download", and voila…

I’ve had tremendous success with brightening skin-tones using this plug- in… I imagine it’ll help you.

Best,
Dan

"The Data Rat" wrote in
news:M3fjb.76091$:

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale and washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this way in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a bit? I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set on 15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was tan. The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle one was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and shows how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks

Ahh blast… copied the URL without checking it, and looks like they canned the program on October 1st.

You can download a demo here:

http://www.nikmultimedia.com/usa/maincontent/index.shtml

(choose nik color efex from the dropdown). Not sure what the demo entitles you to, but hopefully it should help…

"The Data Rat" wrote in news:Pgyjb.78092$AH4.4100 @lakeread06:

http://www.nikonfotoshare.co.uk/Registration/Login.asp

Possible path (will need you to play with settings). NB I’m doing this on an LCD so have little colour control:

Duplicate layer. Then to continue will require a bit of careful masking around your daughter.
Change top layer Blend Mode to Soft Light.
Duplicate layer 2 and mask and change Bland Mode to Hard Light at maybe 50%. Apply Curves adjustment layer, and copy Mask to that. Adjust to preference. Will need some colour control as it goes towards red.

The Data Rat wrote:

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale and washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this way in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a bit? I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set on 15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was tan. The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle one was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and shows how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.
Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks

—
Regards
Christopher Dillon
Onemouse .-‘
+—————————————— _|__–+
| One Man & His Mouse Design Consultancy / \ |
| |()_()| |
| Cambridge \{o o}/ |
| New Zealand =\o/= |
+—————————————— ^ ^ –+

On 10/15/03 3:38 PM, in article h7jjb.76974$, "The Data Rat" wrote:

The top picture is a Caucasian male, the middle is a Somoan female and the last one is a half Asian female. Let’s just say that all of her friends have darker skin than she does. Is there a way to add color and warmth to skin tones.

I have been a printer all my life and we work in cmyk. The rule on flesh tones is to keep the yellow & mag equal and the cyan 10% more. For example:

Yellow 20%
Magenta 20%
Cyan 30%
Black 0

bathe her in warm water before a shoot ? ?

very warm water

;-)))

"The Data Rat" wrote in message

When I take pictures of my daughter with others, she appears to be pale

and

washed out with a definite pink tone to her skin. (It only appears this

way

in digital photo’s, not 35mm.) How can I warm up and darken her skin a

bit?

I have tried several different things, painting with the saturation set

on

15%, (looks fake), Hue saturation, reducing the red and increasing the yellow…improves the tone but not the paleness. Anyway, I posted 3 pictures at

www.81x.com/F8/photoshop_help

They were all taken within a month of each other when my girl child was

tan.

The top one is not a worthy picture, but shows the problem. The middle

one

was taken in fluorescent light, which tends to drain her of color, and

shows

how I tried to "paint" it and it looks SO bad. The third one is about right, a little dark actually, taken in natural, but diffused daylight.
Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks

That is approximately the rule for CMYK neutrals, your figures give a rather light shade of grey. For Caucasian flesh the cyan has to be very much lower than the magenta.

JF

"Robert Jennings" wrote in message

On 10/15/03 3:38 PM, in article h7jjb.76974$, "The

Data

Rat" wrote:

The top picture is a Caucasian male, the middle is a Somoan female and

the

last one is a half Asian female. Let’s just say that all of her friends have darker skin than she does. Is there a way to add color and warmth

to

skin tones.

I have been a printer all my life and we work in cmyk. The rule on flesh tones is to keep the yellow & mag equal and the cyan 10% more. For

example:

Yellow 20%
Magenta 20%
Cyan 30%
Black 0

Sorry for not being able to find this, but where would I go in Photoshop to evaluate and change the percentages of CMYK talked about below…..? Thanks
CC
…

That is approximately the rule for CMYK neutrals, your figures give a

rather

light shade of grey. For Caucasian flesh the cyan has to be very much

lower

than the magenta.

I have been a printer all my life and we work in cmyk. The rule on flesh

tones is to keep the yellow & mag equal and the cyan 10% more. For

example:

Yellow 20%
Magenta 20%
Cyan 30%
Black 0

On 10/18/03 12:25 AM, in article 3f90dc8a$,
"" wrote:

That is approximately the rule for CMYK neutrals, your figures give a rather light shade of grey. For Caucasian flesh the cyan has to be very much lower than the magenta.

You are right. I am sorry, I was thinking of neutral. Try this

Yellow 30
Magenta 20

On 10/18/03 7:09 AM, in article %Xakb.817088$, "cc" wrote:

Sorry for not being able to find this, but where would I go in Photoshop to evaluate and change the percentages of CMYK talked about below…..? Thanks

Image/adjustments/curves or command M.

You might like varations as well.

To actually evaluate the colours you want to know about/change you need to:

1. Set up the info palette to read CMYK values

2. Select the eye dropper tool from the tools palette – make sure that it is not set to read point sample but 3X3 or 5X5

3. Run it accross the area you are interested and watch the info palette numbers change.

A better way is to to open the eye dropper fly-out menu and select the colour sampler tool. You can then click on any part of the image and the values are recorded in the info palette. You then use curves to alter them as you want.

The short cut way (which I like) is to open curves, as suggested, and then, with the colour sampler active , shift+contrl+click on the part you are interested in. Nothing seems to have happened until you open the curves for the individual channels where you find, mirabile dictu, that the precise values in the info palette are fixed on the curve. You can now shove these around with your mouse or adjust them in a more controlled way with the cursor keys.

Even with all this getting satisfactory skin tones isn’t easy but at least it is under control. You have to watch is that getting the colour right may change the luminosity so that it still looks unrealistic. The way out of that is very often to copy the green channel, paste it into a new layer, and set the blending mode to luminosity. That’s why, even if you go into CMYK, it is a good idea to have a duplicate in RGB from which you can copy the green channel and paste it in a new layer on the top of the CMYK layer stack. It may sound a bit unlikely than you can take a channel from one colour space ands paste it into another – but you can.

JohnF

"Robert Jennings" wrote in message

On 10/18/03 7:09 AM, in article %Xakb.817088$, "cc" wrote:

Sorry for not being able to find this, but where would I go in Photoshop

to

evaluate and change the percentages of CMYK talked about below…..? Thanks

Image/adjustments/curves or command M.

You might like varations as well.