Photo Shop Technique Q

[JTx]

You took a great pic. Model looks gorgeous EXCEPT they are as pale as the proverbial ghost...

Is there a technique using photo shop to "darken" the skin tone?

[country]

If pale means too light, as in slightly overexposed, but not blown out, I have used a magic wand set at tolerance of 40, click on skin. Then select-similar, then select-feather 10 pixels, then go to levels and move left slider to the right. This method also works for underexposed skin by moving right slider to the left.
Though not really necessary, I usually do this on a duplicate layer so I can adjust the opacity if necessary or in rare occasions be forced to blend in luminosity due to color shifting in highlights.

Takes under 30 seconds.

country

[JTx]

Thanks for the info. I was actually saying that the model in question has pale skin tone (no tan) and she asked me if I could try and "darken" it a little.

[jasons805]

You could mess around with the contrast, color, selective color, color balance. I just play with it till I get what I like hard to explain I guess

[John Stutz]

I often mess with skin tones to try and reduce the orange ProTan effect, or to get faces to more closely match the rest of the body. Usually this entails lightening the skin, not so much darkening it. Honestly though, I'm such a novice user of Photoshop that I don't know off hand whether or not I'd be dispensing sound advice if I made any hint of a suggestion of what to do. If you want to post (or send me) a sample pic, I can experiment and offer suggestions should I stumble upon a method that works.

Come to think of it, posting a pic might be interesting to see what others might do with it. Even if you don't have a problem photo, perhaps someone (photog or model) might have an interest in starting a thread about "what would you do with this image?" to see how various photos can be 'improved' in post processing by a variety of individuals. Results would be most enlightening I'd bet. Models, please be sure you have the photographer's permission (assuming he/she owns the copyright) before posting of course.

But I digress... One other thing you can do is convert to monochrome and tweak the hell out the contrast and such to create a less realistic, but more artful image. And yes, I do realize that 'more artful' is competely subjective to the viewer. When you do so, it's harldy relevant how light or dark the skin is. Here's an example (http://www.johnstutz.com/image.asp?fit_girls,jennifer_chamberlin,5). Or two (http://www.johnstutz.com/image.asp?fit_girls,lisa_morton,10). Third one's the charm (http://www.johnstutz.com/image.asp?fit_girls,shari_yates,7).

[jasons805]

If you want to post (or send me) a sample pic, I can experiment and offer suggestions should I stumble upon a method that works.

Come to think of it, posting a pic might be interesting to see what others might do with it. Even if you don't have a problem photo, perhaps someone (photog or model) might have an interest in starting a thread about "what would you do with this image?" to see how various photos can be 'improved' in post processing by a variety of individuals. Results would be most enlightening I'd bet. Models, please be sure you have the photographer's permission (assuming he/she owns the copyright) before posting of course.

When you do so, it's harldy relevant how light or dark the skin is. Here's an example (http://www.johnstutz.com/image.asp?fit_girls,jennifer_chamberlin,5). Or two (http://www.johnstutz.com/image.asp?fit_girls,lisa_morton,10). Third one's the charm (http://www.johnstutz.com/image.asp?fit_girls,shari_yates,7).
Sounds like a good idea
P.S. Also with B/W pics I don't find much photoshop is needed alot fo skin problems don't show up in B/W

[country]

If you are familiar with curves at all, then you may want to try the following.

Go to curves, click red channel and at mid point (value 128) move to the left slightly at center point (to 113), go to blue channel and move to right slightly (to 141). Leave RGB channel and green channel as is. I made an action to make it take a few seconds. I make a duplicate layer, play the action, then if necessary cut opacity down.

I use it on portraits where the skin tone is too pale. I sometimes use it after running what I mentioned earlier(select. similar, feather).

country

[fivegrand]

How pale is the model? Also, did you shoot in RAW or jpeg?

If she's white as a ghost, that'll be a bit more work, but shouldn't take more than a couple minutes quick-masking and running curves and levels adjustments.

If she's only fairly pale, it takes all of three seconds:

image>adjustments>photo filter>warming and adjust to suit.

If you shot RAW, you can adjust your white balance in ACR or Nikon Capture (I know you shoot Nikon) to warm up the skin tones.

You can also try quick-masking and applying a Multiply layer and fiddling with that.

There are as many ways to make adjustments as there are people.

Personally - if I have to spend more than a couple of minutes on an image, I trash it because it wasn't shot properly to begin with.

http://www.fivegrandcreative.com/photostorage/alyssa/ap_9985e.jpg