Skin Tone standards for use in image editing

[ConsAreLiars]

I came across this and thought a few might find it helpful. For those doing portraits, sometimes lighting and such makes for some odd skin tones, and this page provides some Photoshop hints along with a JPG of the some standard shades. That image can be used as a comparison standard in other editing programs as well and so might be worth copying. The program I use, Picture Windows Pro, uses that image in a different way, and I assume Paint Shop and others can use it in one way or another.

The image is on this page: http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/skintones/tone1.htm

The comments on using it in PWP are at: http://www.dl-c.com/discus/messages/2/11834.html?1204678472

These sorts of techniques can also be used on other subjects. If you have a still life and the lemon looks more like a lime or an orange, use a clip of what you think is most likely to be a pro-grade image of a lemon (the one that went through big-bucks gear in order to look realistic, not necessarily the one that looks best on your particular monitor) and use whatever tools your program offers to push the colors your lemon around to correspond to those on the "real" lemon.

[CC]

1. You are better off using numbers though

the charts would be a quick fix.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone explains it pretty well.

[ConsAreLiars]

3. That is a very good guide.

The approach in my link is just "make this look more like this." An intermediate (advanced, for me) level bit of tweaking only. I found the graphical example in the PWP link helpful in understanding what the software does, but your site goes another step in understanding why and how those sorts of manipulations of the data make for better prints. Thanks for that.

[Adsos Letter]

2. Thankyou ConsAreLiars...

my images generally need quite a bit of editing and this will be a big help. I often wonder how different the images look on others monitors compared to what I see on my own. I wonder if they are seeing what I am seeing... :shrug:

[ConsAreLiars]

4. Ahh, such is life.

The short and accurate answer is no, very few others, if any, will see the same way. Once upon a time, 90% saw the Chimpy puppet as, well, who knows, something to approve of. Maybe even human.

The thing that I liked about this resource is that even if some see the colors are off one way or another on their own monitors, it provides a standard independent of one's monitor's peculiarities. I use two antiques and nothing will make the cheapo one look as good as the older one, and nothing will make either look like a new $2000 high ender. But for all monitors, at least the original one posts, using this sort of standard, will appear more-or-less realistic. Our eye/brains adapt to everything, including sucky monitors. This means that we, as image providers, don't have to be spreading our own monitor's dysfunctionality along with the image.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. A couple more, skin and hair

Also instructions on how to integrate these palettes into Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro,

http://www.retouchpro.com/pages/colors.html

[JeffR]

6. I'm just starting to sift almost 400 images I shot at an event tonight

and I have another event to shoot tomorrow. This might be a big help for some of the real problem shots (and there are quite a few!). I'm a little more self-assured snapping things rather than people, so this is always an intimidating process.

I thank you!