Getting the tones right! Head shot.

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Cathy
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Hi everyone had my first go at using a beauty dish and wanted to ask if anyone could give me the best way in photoshop to get all the tones to match. I was not sure about how much light to use etc for the shoot but do love the image. Only thing is I am finding it hard to get the skin to blend in as it is all different colours..Her body does not match her beauty make up etc and yes I know my white background would look better if i had put some light there too. Only learning but would like to save this image for the model. Any help would be great :)




Katie test.jpg
 
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Models always do their face make up and then it never matches the rest of the body, next time use a long necked jumper :) What I would do is make a copy of the layer in Photoshop and then match the body to the head, then erase the face and blend in the neck on the top layer, leaving the adjusted layer behind that one, there are masks and the like, but this is how i would do it :)
 
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I think the model needs to get her tones right for that style of shot.

Bob it was her first time and her make up was done by a make up artist so can’t blame her really. I think it is more my fault as this was my first time shooting for beauty head shots and not sure about lighting her correctly. lol.
 
Had a very quick attempt in Photoshop. Created a Selective Colour Adjustment layer and decreased the Yellows and played around with the Reds/Magentas. Then added a Curves Adjustment Layer to adjust the look of the whole image (mainly decreased the highlights, but also changed the individual colour curves as well). With a bit more time, it could be perfect :)
 
A quick go using frequency separation...
I happen to like the tinted BG better than pure white...

Steven good job thank you for sharing it. Did you tone her straight from a colour in her face ?
So much better than I got on I took a sample from her face and painted over her body to match pulled back the opacity of the layer but it looked too fake.
 

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Had a very quick attempt in Photoshop. Created a Selective Colour Adjustment layer and decreased the Yellows and played around with the Reds/Magentas. Then added a Curves Adjustment Layer to adjust the look of the whole image (mainly decreased the highlights, but also changed the individual colour curves as well). With a bit more time, it could be perfect :)

Thank you Richard this gives another look to try. I will go through the steps and see how I get on . Good thing is once I get it right I can copy settings to others. This fun shoot is teaching me a lot but think I really need a night class in how to light for portraits :)
 
Does your Makeup artist work for Trump.
That orange is very familiar.
This is a make up problem not a lighting one.
I would show the problem to the MU artist so she gets it right in future ...
make up should extend to what is going to be shown in the pictures, not just the face.
 
Steven good job thank you for sharing it. Did you tone her straight from a colour in her face ?
So much better than I got on I took a sample from her face and painted over her body to match pulled back the opacity of the layer but it looked too fake.
Multiple samples... generally from a more nearby area (i.e. neck). A little darker sample for slightly darker areas, etc.
That's an advantage of frequency separation because the color edits are done below the detail layer(s) which helps keep it from looking "fake." The more you blur the color layer the more (tones/details) that will end up on the detail layer... if you do too much color blending below and the detail layer doesn't have enough it can look odd/fake.

It's a little hard to explain, but pretty easy to do/understand once you've watched a how-to and tried it.
 
make up should extend to what is going to be shown in the pictures, not just the face.
I agree with this, but there are almost always going to be some of these tone/color issues... unless the person is completely airbrushed/pancaked; and that can be just as bad/worse.
 
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I start by getting my WB 'right'

Then I use a hue/sat adjustment layer like this:

  • Select reds from the drop down.
  • Max out the hue and sat sliders until the skin goes a really strange colour.
  • Adjust the little sliders on the colour bars at the bottom so that only the reddest patches of skin look strange.
  • Move the saturation back down to 0 or -2 ish
  • Move the hue down to around +8
  • Boost the lightness to +2
  • Fiddle around with these numbers until the red areas more closely match the rest of the skin
    Mask off where not required, e.g. lipstick, cheek blusher.
That'll get you a long way without too much pfaffing around and won't accidentally cause the sort of degradation that clumsy frequency separation can introduce.

Here's a video:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecMMp6Fc_Xg



Once the tones are close you can do whatever you want to alter the overall colour. Typically for Caucasian skin you'll want the green value halfway between the red and blue values (use the Info tool window)

To fine tune I sometimes use targeted curves adjustments, sometimes frequency separation or a variation thereof. Sometimes just painting on a layer set to Hue mode will do it. I rarely use selective colour adjustments. Sometimes I use blend_if. Occasionally I make a selection using channels. Sometimes dodging & burning will do it, but that can often need further colour correction.

If you want more details on the fine tuning just shout, I don't want to overwhelm you with technical stuff if it's not relevant.
 
True, works well if dodging & burning using curves. I find I'm faster with a single soft light layer though - need more practice!

Random thought - what happens with a soft light layer in a group set to luminosity mode?
It's converted to luminosity (and looks terrible)
 
I start by getting my WB 'right'

Then I use a hue/sat adjustment layer like this:

  • Select reds from the drop down.
  • Max out the hue and sat sliders until the skin goes a really strange colour.
  • Adjust the little sliders on the colour bars at the bottom so that only the reddest patches of skin look strange.
  • Move the saturation back down to 0 or -2 ish
  • Move the hue down to around +8
  • Boost the lightness to +2
  • Fiddle around with these numbers until the red areas more closely match the rest of the skin
    Mask off where not required, e.g. lipstick, cheek blusher.
That'll get you a long way without too much pfaffing around and won't accidentally cause the sort of degradation that clumsy frequency separation can introduce.

Here's a video:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecMMp6Fc_Xg



Once the tones are close you can do whatever you want to alter the overall colour. Typically for Caucasian skin you'll want the green value halfway between the red and blue values (use the Info tool window)

To fine tune I sometimes use targeted curves adjustments, sometimes frequency separation or a variation thereof. Sometimes just painting on a layer set to Hue mode will do it. I rarely use selective colour adjustments. Sometimes I use blend_if. Occasionally I make a selection using channels. Sometimes dodging & burning will do it, but that can often need further colour correction.

If you want more details on the fine tuning just shout, I don't want to overwhelm you with technical stuff if it's not relevant.

Great info and videos and thank you for giving your time to help this has been very helpful :)
 
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