Need Assistance on how to improve skin tones with strobes

[MARKOE PHOTOE]

Mix it up a bit.  This is just my interpretation. Sometimes colors just don't fit well.

[drjlo]

A few ways to improve the look.

1.  Don't shoot in AWB, especially in studio.  Custom white balance with something like ColorRight or equivalent if you don't want to deal with WB in post-processing.

2.  Appropriate light modifiers to fit the model.  Babies can stand much harder light than older folks, so things like softboxes or maybe even beauty dishes may cut down on post-processing time to improve skin tones, blemishes, and shine.

3.  Ground-up post-processing and retouching on portraits can take hours and be very labor-intensive, especially if you do lots of potraits.  I recommend a good portraiture software such as Portrait Professional to cut down on the rote labor  and easily reproducible results.   

[K-amps]

Interesting how different everyone's interpretation (PP) is.

Love the BW rendition Markoe ... wins the contest hands down!

[Heavyweight67]

Caucasian skin can sometimes be difficult, it seems despite how white we see ourselves the reds become evident once we're photographed...I live in Asia and have an Asian wife, any time I attempt to shoot a portrait of both of us, these huge variations in skin tone become evident...I have spent countless hours attempting to balance the colours, I have various PP packages, neither provide a satisfactory outcome...I learnt after a while that sometimes B&W is the best course of action...

(As a side-note from experience in Asia, the whiter you can make the females here the happier they are)

So now with many if not all I shoot with the intention of converting to monochrome..

I think with your subject (no offence) he's a heavier set older gentleman, so despite your light/camera settings he is naturally going to be Red/a little shiny....as others have said you could use some make-up/powder (I could take a guess that this may not go to well with this gentleman).

This is where you as a photographer have to consider ways to show your client in the best way, a good B&W is timeless...

Not that it will solve all your problems, because you still have to find the best way to process the B&W image.

With some of the examples I personally don't think that over processing (blurring) male skin is the best option.

With females it is a little more acceptable  (look at many of the movies of the past, soft shot for female, then hard shot for males)...all personal preference...

[dirtcastle]

Lightroom

[Canon-F1]

A few ways to improve the look.

1.  Don't shoot in AWB, especially in studio.  Custom white balance with something like ColorRight or equivalent if you don't want to deal with WB in post-processing.

i shoot raw so in camera WB does not really matter.. and yes as i said the xrite colorchecker helps.

[MARKOE PHOTOE]

Lightroom

Well done dirtcastle.   I like this one the best. 

[revup67]

Markoe and Dirtrcastle..did you by any chance keep track of the settings and which software was used?  Those were innovative and an upgrade from mine.  Dirtcastle..the only 2 things that may concern me with your rendition is the change of jacket color.  it was an olive green prior and also his hair color does not match the original.

DB - perhaps I should look into the Portrait professional..just when you think you have it all with CS5 and Light Room

For those that asked though I did mention in the original post - I used Custom White Balance with 18% gray card and shot in RAW (Large).  I have a 6 stop ND filter which may be a bit too much.  Good point on using the ISO 50 but I did use a light meter to help sway from clipping.

[dirtcastle]

I appreciate the compliments. I would say my edit is maybe 75% of how good it could be. I just wanted to give it a quick try (45min). The skin tone of the face is still off a bit, I think. But the splotches are fixed and the color scheme is more appealing.

I find that getting colors right usually requires experimenting with all of the color controls in concert, bouncing back and forth between them. It can be helpful to think of color editing as a zero-sum game of "color ping pong". To remove the red, I definitely made sure to compensate with other colors (so that it doesn't flatten out). I was able to remove the red splotchiness in the HSL controls by reducing the red saturation, upping the orange saturation, and increasing the luminance on the red (because part of the problem was that the red was dark). I also dropped the overall saturation.

The bottom line is that color is crazy complicated and it's all about experimentation and keeping your eyes fresh while you work.

I tried to attach my Lightroom settings for this shot, but the forum won't allow me to attach ".dng" files (and for good reason). But anyone is welcome to send me a private message and I will send you the settings I used here.

[Bosman]

Here is a couple you can see about angling them
http://www.bosmanphotography.com/main.php#/PORTFOLIO/PORTRAITS/Portrait Portfolio/1
I don't have many up there and they arent perfect by any means either but it gives you a visual.

[revup67]

Bosman - clicked on your link using Firefox 15.0 and nothing appears.  All I can see is the navigation section at the base of the screen and a few small icons in the upper right corner.  Center of screen is completely blank.

[dirtcastle]

I also got an unresponsive page with a blank target area. Chrome on a Mac.

[Bosman]

Sorry, i dint know that would be a problem. Try this and if not that then. www.bosmanphotography/portfolio portraits/portrait portfolio.

http://www.bosmanphotography.com/main.php#/PORTFOLIO/PORTRAITS/Portrait Portfolio/1

[brad goda]

your strobes look like they were diffused and didnt cause any radical shine on subjects face
certain brands do have more red than others... going into the red saturation in raw process can reduce the effects of that... even changing the red hue to reduce odd red saturation on certain asian skin pigmintation.
some softening could help in raw process or softening skin with filtration in PS..

Best always is good make up that does not react with strobes and shift hues.
Good Make up artists make our work look great.