Need Assistance on how to improve skin tones with strobes

Status
Not open for further replies.
drjlo said:
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.
 
Upvote 0
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.
 
Upvote 0
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.
 
Upvote 0
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.
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.