Having problems with skin. Any ideas?

smceachron · July 17, 2011, 04:16:55 AM

I'm experiencing a problem with recreating dark skin. Any one have any ideas? thanks, Sandi :-[
I put the photo into my photobucket.

kiska · July 17, 2011, 06:03:01 AM

It would help if you would post the image. ::)

Oldfaded · July 17, 2011, 08:53:06 AM

:funny: True true...done that!
One way I will do (that said without seeing the photo your working on) is to find another photo with the similar tones and work from that.

Tori803 · July 17, 2011, 03:36:37 PM

Here's a quote from the book Skin by Lee Varis, p. 133: "African American skin values usually look better with a little more magenta than you might use for Caucasian skin - especially if the skin tone is very dark. In Figure 4.26 [not supplied here], the magenta is equal to yellow. This is about as much magenta as I would tolerate. In reality, skin values are all over the place, and it's common to find black skin that has a very yellow bias. While this is real, it usually is not desirable in print because it makes the skin look green. Darker skin will have a higher percentage of cyan - this is what adds weight and shape to skin tone. As the skin gets darker, I tend to raise the level of magenta in the ratios to balance out the yellow-cyan 'greenness.' To raise the magenta values (you guessed it), subtract green. Really dark charcoal-colored skin can have an almost blue cast, but, again, this is undesirable in print most of the time."

Don't know it this will help, but may give you ideas with adjusting the image.

Tori

glennab · July 17, 2011, 07:47:04 PM

Sandi, it really would help to see your image to give us an idea of what you're up against. Is there any undamaged skin from which you can sample? If so, you can always use the most prevalent color and make a dodge and burn layer to get your shading and shaping. I'm going to look tonight for that tutorial I mentioned about creating skin texture. You may or may not need it, but I think it'll help with mine, and it would be a good resource for anyone trying to "paint" missing areas and retain the look of skin.

I just got a request from a Facebook friend to color correct and retouch a photo of a stunning East Indian woman. I was amazed at the fact that her skin has a bluish tone in the shadow areas - and I don't think it's artifact. It appears to be the nature of her pigmentation. So I can see where darker skin can be different combinations of colors, depending on the person's heritage. The formula of RGB or CMYK could vary greatly. I usually use the magenta to yellow ratio for pale skin, but here we're talking about introducing the ratio of green and/or blue. That leads to the issue of impeccable color correction from the get-go. Wowser.

Cheers,

GK

glennab · July 18, 2011, 05:46:02 AM

Sandi, and the rest of our volunteers

I've contacted NAPP and asked for permission to post in some manner the great tutorial on creating skin texture. Here's hoping we get a quick reply with the okay to use the information. It's good stuff!

They've been very good to us in the past. NAPP's executive director Larry Becker gave me the okay to create my own version of the kick-butt color correction tutorial that I learned at a seminar a few years ago. I think he'll help in any way possible.

GK

Hannie · July 18, 2011, 08:57:30 AM

Hi Sandi,

This is a difficult restore!

Skin tone looks good on the forum, when I downloaded it it was a little too yellow in Photoshop.

For the skin repair you could heal as much of the arms as possible and then use the patch tool or even select the good part of left arm, paste, flip it horizontally, lower mid levels adjustment. There you would have to do some transforming and erasing to make it look natural.

The hand is harder, I would zoom in real close and heal/clone as much as possible then paint back in the missing parts that can't be cloned.

Hannie

Pat · July 18, 2011, 11:28:27 AM

Glenna that would be wonderful; I hope it works out. Thank you!

Pat

smceachron · July 18, 2011, 05:50:44 PM

I happen to belong to NAPP. I'll check with the website for a tutorial. In the mean time, I think your idea of NAPP tutorials is a great idea.

Bambi · July 18, 2011, 11:02:26 PM

Wow. I passed that one up because it was too challenging. Great job so far.

I can only suggest that you put your restored Layers in Normal and adjust the Opacity of each one until just enough of the real creases and shadows show through to make it look real—and there's enough damage showing through that you can correct in a Merged Layer.

Regarding NAPP, their tutorials are great, you get discounts on Adobe products, and I get a lot of tips from Photoshop TV. I learned about OPR at Photoshop World.

Johnboy · July 18, 2011, 11:12:56 PM

Sandi,

From what I can see on the original there maybe enough good image to use the Patch Tool. The thing I like about it is once you select your damaged area and drag the damaged area to good material and release the mouse it blends the new material with the surrounding damaged area. Another nice thing I found was that along the edges of the image you can carefully align then to make an edge look right. Do this on a copy of the background in case it doesn't work out.

Johnboy

smceachron · July 19, 2011, 02:59:33 AM

You guys are wonderful!! Now I don't feel so alone. I hope someday I can help you. Hugs, :loveit:

Bambi · July 19, 2011, 03:45:44 PM

Also with the Patch Tool, if you can click on Destination—the opposite of Source. You can select a good area and drag it over the damage.

glennab · July 20, 2011, 12:13:01 AM

I still haven't gotten any word from NAPP, but those of you who are getting Photoshop User will have the article on creating skin texture. It's a Bert Monroy piece on page 64 in the June issue. If you get the digital version, then you can file it even more easily as a reference, but I still don't know if we can post it here. In the case of Sandi's little girl, the photo is so small that the texture probably wouldn't be that critical. I believe JB's right. If you can get clean samples and keep pulling from them, you'll get as much texture as you need.

However, I've worked on some large portraits on which this technique would have worked wonders. I won't give up. If necessary I'll call them or drive up to Oldsmar. They're only about an hour from me. I've already threatened Scott Kelby that I'm coming up there since he won't friend me on FB (which is probably why he hasn't friended me. Sigh!)

Another option might be for one of us to be adventurous and create the texture and make it available to anyone who needs it. That might overcome the copyright issue. Complicated!

Cheers!

GK

P.S. Sandi, keep in mind that you are helping us. I've learned as much trying to help other volunteers overcome their challenges as I have working on my own stinkers. So as we download and look at your image and other people's who are struggling, we're learning right along with you. I believe if we could compile all the great information and tutorials into an OPR restoration book, we could fund the organization. There are tips and tricks in here that I don't think I've seen anywhere else, including Katrin Eismann's and Ctein's wonderful books. And they are the best of the best. Ctein is starting to offer tutorials through RetouchPro, and he's awesome. You might want to check that out as well.