Easy Skin Tone Adjustments

By Elizabeth LePage · August 16th, 2011

· 14 Comments · Add to my favorites · Print

Here are two easy techniques for removing a color cast in a portrait.

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This entry is filed under Members, Photo Editing Techniques, Retouching, Video Tutorials.

14 Replies to Easy Skin Tone Adjustments:

James
August 16, 2011 at 3:19 am

Thanks for a great tutorial, Elizabeth. This one’s a keeper!
Alex
August 16, 2011 at 7:21 am

Very helpful. Thanks
Dorrie
August 16, 2011 at 8:23 am

A nice tutorial, however the volume was rather low. Some of us senior citizens don’t hear as well as we use to. :) Seriously, the volume was much lower than past videos.
- Elizabeth
  August 16, 2011 at 1:30 pm
  
  Dorrie, thanks for the kind feedback! I’m sorry the volume is so low, I need to start speaking a little bit louder into my microphone. I’ll make sure it’s nice and loud next time! :)
- Rick LePage
  August 25, 2011 at 1:41 pm
  
  Dorrie,
  
  We’ve boosted the volume a bit and re-uploaded the video. See if you think it’s a bit better.
  
  Rick
James
August 16, 2011 at 11:30 am

Why’d the Effect Palette open?
- Elizabeth
  August 16, 2011 at 3:11 pm
  
  The Effect Palette is automatically open when I launch Elements. I didn’t use it in this tutorial, but I keep it open because it’s part of the default interface.
  If you’d like to get rid of it, you can go to the Window menu and uncheck Effects.
Kevin
August 16, 2011 at 7:19 pm

This is a good video on skin tone. The audio was low, but I see you are going to fix that next time. I learned from previous video’s that you can just slide your mouse over the word opacity to reduce the percentage. That is a lot quicker. I did notice that the hair changed colour as well. Judging by your profile photo you are a blonde, and I wonder what the effect would be on your photo. I worry that changing the skin tone, would cause a disaster to your hair. I would be very interested to see if I am right.
- Elizabeth
  August 18, 2011 at 1:43 pm
  
  This photograph is of a friend and her hair is naturally a warm, golden blonde. Before I fixed it, you’ll notice that her hair appears flat and blueish, which isn’t quite right. So this technique is to fix the overall image color, it just uses the skin tone as a base for editing that color.
  I think if the subject’s hair were neon blue, than we might have a problem, but otherwise, I haven’t noticed any strange effects of hair! :)
  - Kevin
    August 18, 2011 at 6:51 pm
    
    Thank You for the clarification about the blond hair. I now realize that by selecting the skin tone, you are adding a colour cast to the whole image. That is why the hair changed colour slightly. Your right about wanting to warm up the skin tones, as people prefer them that way. If the hair became a problem, I would probably use a selection tool, and a photo filter adjustment to correct it. Keep up the good work. I look forward to your next video.
Karen
August 17, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Boy, this really helped me a lot. I was on a time crunch to finish a set of photos and one photo the skin was too blotchy and red. This video really helped my photo. Very easy to follow long, but I did have to turn up my volume all the way.
John
August 21, 2011 at 5:05 pm

M
Kathy
August 31, 2011 at 2:12 pm

I have used skin color correction in PSE 4-9 for a long time; your tutorial was right on. Was thrilled at the additional info on “painted over the darker, shaded portions of the face on a new layer, changing it’s opacity to optimize/minimize the correction. From an old-timer, THANKS! It’s great to learn new tricks!
Alfred
May 16, 2012 at 6:37 pm

Hi Elizabeth, thank you for a nice easy to learn way of righting the skin colour I found it better than the way I had fallen into, and was much more successful than my old attempts. Thank you. “Ben”