Help with correcting skin tone.

[julianliu]

Hello, everyone

As you can see these portraits are shot with sunset behind the model and strobe light in front of her. Because these photos are backlit, I have spent hours to balance the foreground and background. I also pumped up with the saturation as I like saturated sunset. Unfortunately, her skin tone was messed up so I spent hours to fix her skin tone with curves in PS. (I know I am slow in doing this, but I enjoyed it)

Usually I am reluctant to adjust skin tone as I am color weak (would not say blind) in green. That's why I found it particularly challenging for me to fix skin tone, in addition to just manually adjust any color. But I think it's time to overcome the fear and start learning how to get the reasonably pleasant skin tone in a unique way to me. So please help me by commenting whether the skin tone is pleasant or not, if not, which color is too much? You are welcome to play with these photos if you think that's a better way to educate me. By the way, I tried to match the color of all four images to make them look consistent with each other.

Thanks,

Julian

 

[weepete]

I think these are great. Skin tone looks spot on to me.

 

[JimMcClain]

Her shadow on the ground makes it seem like the rest is just a backdrop in a studio. Using fill and balancing the light output can help to eliminate that awkwardly lit look.

Jim

 

[Designer]

Unfortunately, her skin tone was messed up so I spent hours to fix her skin tone with curves in PS.

The skin tones look pretty good now, except for the model's right hand in #1 looks strangely too light.

It would help a thorough critique if we could see what the colors were before you spent hours on them.

If you wanted to repost, just grab a 100% crop of a small portion of the model's skin in a before/after comparison.

Additionally, the setting is messing with your shot. To capture the model, the sunset, the water and the lighthouse, but avoiding the boats would help this session. There is just too much going on in the background.

 

[kathyt]

I would also say the skin tones look good.

 

[julianliu]

I think these are great. Skin tone looks spot on to me.

I would also say the skin tones look good.

Thanks! I am little more confident about fixing skin tones now

Her shadow on the ground makes it seem like the rest is just a backdrop in a studio. Using fill and balancing the light output can help to eliminate that awkwardly lit look.

Jim

Jim, you are right on that. The photos looks unnatural with the drastically different lighting. But I like the photos with sunset overall so I tried to fix it in the post. I had a reflector at that time so maybe that could help some. Anyway, that would be on my to do list next time when shooting scenes like this. Thanks!

Unfortunately, her skin tone was messed up so I spent hours to fix her skin tone with curves in PS.

The skin tones look pretty good now, except for the model's right hand in #1 looks strangely too light.

It would help a thorough critique if we could see what the colors were before you spent hours on them.

If you wanted to repost, just grab a 100% crop of a small portion of the model's skin in a before/after comparison.

Additionally, the setting is messing with your shot. To capture the model, the sunset, the water and the lighthouse, but avoiding the boats would help this session. There is just too much going on in the background.

I will post the before editing pictures later. Her skin tone looks whitish with flash light, which is in strong contrast and unnatural with the yellowish sunset background so I added some yellow to her skin tone.

Good point about simplifying the background! I was in a paradox when looking at these photos as I like the detailed background but also felt little distracting. I would like to try that next time!

I learned a lot here. Thanks guys!

 

[Vtec44]

Next time, gel your flash as close to the color of the sunset. Obviously, how close to the color of the sunset is a personal preference.

 

[julianliu]

Next time, gel your flash as close to the color of the sunset. Obviously, how close to the color of the sunset is a personal preference.

Good reminder! 1/4 orange gel should do the trick.

 

[julianliu]

Here are the 4 photos with just basic editing in lightroom.

What do you guys think the before and after? The skin tone in these photos are too pale right?

 

[julianliu]

Unfortunately, her skin tone was messed up so I spent hours to fix her skin tone with curves in PS.

The skin tones look pretty good now, except for the model's right hand in #1 looks strangely too light.

It would help a thorough critique if we could see what the colors were before you spent hours on them.

If you wanted to repost, just grab a 100% crop of a small portion of the model's skin in a before/after comparison.

Additionally, the setting is messing with your shot. To capture the model, the sunset, the water and the lighthouse, but avoiding the boats would help this session. There is just too much going on in the background.

Designer, what do you think now after you seeing the before editing pictures?

 

[TrolleySwag]

The 2nd set is much more natural looking.

 

[Designer]

Designer, what do you think now after you seeing the before editing pictures?

My first thought was; I can understand how you got so confused with the colors. In your (3) edited versions you seem to have "created" sunset colors where none existed in the originals. By manipulating the colors to such an extent you may be experiencing difficulty in getting everything to look natural.

 

[julianliu]

The 2nd set is much more natural looking.

Thanks for pointing that out. I agree the 2nd set looks more natural but also too flat to my taste. But I admit my post processing is a work in progress.

 

[julianliu]

Designer, what do you think now after you seeing the before editing pictures?

My first thought was; I can understand how you got so confused with the colors. In your (3) edited versions you seem to have "created" sunset colors where none existed in the originals. By manipulating the colors to such an extent you may be experiencing difficulty in getting everything to look natural.

I agree the post processing is a bit harsh and overdone by comparing these photos. Unfortunately the more I look at the original's flat look, the more I wanted to make the sunset "pop out" and dramatic. There is a lot to improve with my post processing? Or there is much more to improve with the shooting?

 

[Designer]

Since I don't have PS, it would simply not occur to me to create colors, because I wouldn't be able to if I tried. Therefore; my approach would be to either wait for the colors to occur naturally, or just make the best photograph I could with the conditions as they existed.

Frankly, your SOOC shots are not bad except for the choice of background. IOW; I would try to find a place to pose the model without the boats showing.