Skin tone advice, please (and thank you)

[andrewdoeshair]

I've never done a lot to work on people's skin until very recently, after reading a post by Derel about adding a little bit of cayenne. I tried it on a photo of my wife and I found that I was able to drag the white balance further to the cool side than usual without making her look like a zombie.


So yesterday I did a short session with a friend and I wanted to take that idea to the extreme. Just to see how far I could push it, or what it may look like. This was shot with a single 5500k LED bulb in a soft box and a reflector under his chin, with the camera set to 3300k. I need to do a better job checking my images on the camera, because I didn't realize most of his face was sticking out of focus until I went to edit these. I don't know is that's "wrong" but the fact that I didn't plan on it or catch it during the shoot certainly makes it wrong.


Then I figured I'd see what the other end of the white balance spectrum could feel like, and I set my camera to like, 6400k and got a few. This one was really hard for me to feel comfortable with while editing. I pulled out almost all of the yellow because the image just looked like it was lacquered and left in the sun for a year. I don't know if I'm happy with it, I don't know if it's "wrong" in any technical sense, I was just farting around trying to do something I've never done before. I post about it here to hopefully pick up some guidance. For what I'm aiming to do here, maybe, how far is TOO far? Maybe I'm just overthinking this because I'm trying to put something out that the eyes didn't see and the camera only kind of saw. It's easy to be okay with an image that you know is accurate to what was sitting there, but I have a hard time crossing the line into making an image that wasn't there.


This little game I've been playing, pushing white balance to un-natural looking places then trying to correct the skin tone to look more natural, is it a thing that you might do to produce a specific result, or am I wasting my time making photos that would cause a photography teacher to fail me? If it is a thing, can anyone share examples of how it's "supposed to look" with me? I know on one hand it's like "oh it's art, there are no rules only guidelines" but then on the other hand maybe I'm doing this the long hard way and will never get results I should be proud of until I try it this other way to get going in the right direction. Am I incorrectly doing something I should use gels to do? I've fiddled with gels to achieve sort of the same idea, like this pic of my wife in the snow. I wanted to make the world around her look extra cold so I used an orange gel under a Fong diffuser on a speed light pointed at her. This is as it was scanned from the film. I think I want to tweak it in lightroom to make her "not orange" and make the background more icy blue.


So I don't know what my main questions are, I guess I want to know if this is an exercise worth continuing to explore, if I'm going about it the right way, and if there are any tips you'd be able to share with me when it comes to skin tone in general. It's like the number one thing I second guess with every photo I make, so I often default to black and white because I'm never pleased with skin tones. Thanks for reading!

 

[Derrel]

Color grading is a huge minefield/battlefield/court of public opinion. I long ago grew sick and tired of "correct color".I think millions and millions of people are now absolutely fed up with "correct WB" and "accurate color".

People really do not want accurate color--instead, they want PLEASING color.

If it feels right, it is right.

 

[mmaria]

you're overthinking and over-complicating.

... it's very much a normal phase for everyone who wants to get better.

Relax! Experiment. Observe. Learn color theory.

There's no right and wrong.

Relax

your wife is a beauty!

 

[Vtec44]

This is how *I* typically edit my snowy skin tone (golden glow sunset). We all edit differently so it doesn't mean much but at least you'll have something to reference.

 

[Vtec44]

Different lighting, different color cast, and these were shot on film (Portra 400).

 

[andrewdoeshair]

Wow, you all are amazing. Thank you for the replies and examples. This forum never ceases to amaze me. Photography is such an intimidating thing to learn, especially to ask strangers for advice, but this forum seems to be so understanding and welcoming. After I wrote that first post I realized that I was totally overthinking the issue. I even felt a little embarrassed for posting about it. I don't want to waste anyone's time around here with my dumb hang ups. I figured to ask about this because it was a new idea to me and I wanted to try to learn about it faster than I would have by trial and error alone, but I also posted it because I had already sort of seen what Derel mentioned, about the battlefield court of public opinion. I've seen statements (out of context) about how aspects of editing should ALWAYS or NEVER (fill in the blank), so I didn't want to break a rule and waste my time going down a road that wouldn't go anywhere. I guess ultimately those are all opinions. So seeing some die hard opinions out there makes me want to be the best student I can, lest I should break someone's rules somewhere and look stupid. I guess the "accurate vs pleasing" color debate probably changes with trends and has valid arguments on either side. I just see portraits sometimes where the model is so glowing and smooth yet also sharp that it looks better than any human in real life, and I want to be able to do that. Fiddling with skin tones, adding cayenne color and pushing the luminance on the oranges seems to get me closer to that. I'm going to keep playing with it, I figure it can be another trick in the bag that I'll eventually learn to use tastefully and in appropriate places.

Side note, the nose and forehead out of focus on my blueish photo, is that a horrible faux pas or something that is sometimes acceptable? Should I aim never to do that or is there a time and a place for it? I know that in hair there are times to break traditional rules, and that usually there is a secondary set of rules that come into play. Is there a rule about blurry foreheads, or a secondary rule that makes a blurry forehead work? Or is it all just opinion again? Sorry for the giant post. I had a client cancel so I'm going crazy sitting here

 

[Vtec44]

Side note, the nose and forehead out of focus on my blueish photo, is that a horrible faux pas or something that is sometimes acceptable? Should I aim never to do that or is there a time and a place for it? I know that in hair there are times to break traditional rules, and that usually there is a secondary set of rules that come into play. Is there a rule about blurry foreheads, or a secondary rule that makes a blurry forehead work? Or is it all just opinion again? Sorry for the giant post. I had a client cancel so I'm going crazy sitting here

There are no rules in photography but only guidelines. It's better for you to understand the "why's" rather than just follow the guidelines blindly. If the "why's" don't make sense to you then don't follow them. The best thing that you can do IMHO is to understand the "why's" and know why you don't follow them. Each of us shoot and edit very differently.