p.70 #4Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
GabrielPhoto wrote: Hodie wrotefuzzykeys wroteI just did this a few days ago on some shots of a model in a pool where there was major blue color contamination from light reflecting off the water. Gradient maps fixed it up nicely and with minimum fuss without being too strong as to be unrealistic looking and fail to take the fact that the water is in fact blue out of the equation 100%. I think the result eliminated the distraction. The shots are on my last Instagram post but I will try to export some versions for the forum as well. You do need a tidier mask than you would for a less brute force method like selective color or hue/saturation but IMHO this works very well and is a mainstay in my portrait editing workflow because things like this simply happen all the time to me even when I try to avoid them. For harder edges like you have here on the camera right cheek, object selection with a little 0.5-1 pixel feathering in PS works well and quickly. Just shift+f5 after you’ve selected the skin and then fill with white paint with the layer mask selected. Anyway, I’d rather get the shot I want and fix the color when necessary, and gradient maps are super powerful! I also use them for more brute force color grading when more subtle shifting of hues is just not cutting it. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
Hodie wrotefuzzykeys wrote@Hodie@@@@@@@@ this is my favorite hack for contaminated skin tones. Create a gradient map adjustment layer in PS and then turn it off. Go to the eye dropper tool and then the toolbar at the top of the PS interface. Make sure your sampling is at least set to 3x3 average to avoid sampling noise. Go back to your gradient map and double click on it to open the options, double click the left node and select a shadow (but not extreme shadow) color from the non-contaminated skin. Double click the right node and select a highlight but not a specular highlight. Turn the gradient map layer on, set the blending mode to color, and create an empty black mask. Paint over the contaminated skin with a 100% opacity brush. It will look like way too strong of a correction so reduce the opacity of the gradient map to ~25-35%. It almost always works. You can try some different samples if it doesn’t quite look right. There is also very little harm in painting this onto all of the skin to unify the hues a bit, which I do quite a bit!Thanks, Matt! I'll come back to this and try it out. Appreciate it!I just tried the gradient map and it took out a lot of the red blotches on the skin, but I think it makes the skin look more yellow. His skin did actually have some red blotches on it because it was so damn hot that day. The unedited RAW shows this.
I've been looking at this photo so much now, I've kind of lost track of what I'm supposed to be correcting. Dumb question: What is it that I should be looking to fix? Here's the unedited photo (RAW > JPEG).a quick edit if you don't mind
Thanks, Gabriel! I don't mind at all. That's why I put the unedited up there. Do you mind sharing what steps you took?
p.70 #5Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
Hodie wrote: GabrielPhoto wroteHodie wrotefuzzykeys wroteI just did this a few days ago on some shots of a model in a pool where there was major blue color contamination from light reflecting off the water. Gradient maps fixed it up nicely and with minimum fuss without being too strong as to be unrealistic looking and fail to take the fact that the water is in fact blue out of the equation 100%. I think the result eliminated the distraction. The shots are on my last Instagram post but I will try to export some versions for the forum as well. You do need a tidier mask than you would for a less brute force method like selective color or hue/saturation but IMHO this works very well and is a mainstay in my portrait editing workflow because things like this simply happen all the time to me even when I try to avoid them. For harder edges like you have here on the camera right cheek, object selection with a little 0.5-1 pixel feathering in PS works well and quickly. Just shift+f5 after you’ve selected the skin and then fill with white paint with the layer mask selected. Anyway, I’d rather get the shot I want and fix the color when necessary, and gradient maps are super powerful! I also use them for more brute force color grading when more subtle shifting of hues is just not cutting it. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
Hodie wrotefuzzykeys wrote@Hodie@@@@@@@@@ this is my favorite hack for contaminated skin tones. Create a gradient map adjustment layer in PS and then turn it off. Go to the eye dropper tool and then the toolbar at the top of the PS interface. Make sure your sampling is at least set to 3x3 average to avoid sampling noise. Go back to your gradient map and double click on it to open the options, double click the left node and select a shadow (but not extreme shadow) color from the non-contaminated skin. Double click the right node and select a highlight but not a specular highlight. Turn the gradient map layer on, set the blending mode to color, and create an empty black mask. Paint over the contaminated skin with a 100% opacity brush. It will look like way too strong of a correction so reduce the opacity of the gradient map to ~25-35%. It almost always works. You can try some different samples if it doesn’t quite look right. There is also very little harm in painting this onto all of the skin to unify the hues a bit, which I do quite a bit!Thanks, Matt! I'll come back to this and try it out. Appreciate it!I just tried the gradient map and it took out a lot of the red blotches on the skin, but I think it makes the skin look more yellow. His skin did actually have some red blotches on it because it was so damn hot that day. The unedited RAW shows this.
I've been looking at this photo so much now, I've kind of lost track of what I'm supposed to be correcting. Dumb question: What is it that I should be looking to fix? Here's the unedited photo (RAW > JPEG).a quick edit if you don't mindThanks, Gabriel! I don't mind at all. That's why I put the unedited up there. Do you mind sharing what steps you took?
So it was a quick step of creating a hue/saturation layer in Photoshop then I removed any green saturation and tweaked the yellow towards more skin color to even out with the rest of the skin. Used a brush to go over the parts I wanted to focus on.
Hope that helps. It could be done better of course but just a quick thought I had on how to approach it.
p.70 #6Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
Picked the last photo of a Headshot session this morning and did a quick mini edit to post (from the JPG).
PS When I post here to share a photo I do it trying to share some work and offer some advice if requested. That is why I sometimes add a BTS shot.
Offering CC to me or ANYONE that is not asking for it, I consider it bad manners. I don't know it all but when I want CC I will be happy to make it clear.
Then again, the ones that like to do that are usually in my ignored list anyway...
p.70 #7Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
GabrielPhoto wrote: Hodie wroteGabrielPhoto wroteHodie wrotefuzzykeys wroteI just did this a few days ago on some shots of a model in a pool where there was major blue color contamination from light reflecting off the water. Gradient maps fixed it up nicely and with minimum fuss without being too strong as to be unrealistic looking and fail to take the fact that the water is in fact blue out of the equation 100%. I think the result eliminated the distraction. The shots are on my last Instagram post but I will try to export some versions for the forum as well. You do need a tidier mask than you would for a less brute force method like selective color or hue/saturation but IMHO this works very well and is a mainstay in my portrait editing workflow because things like this simply happen all the time to me even when I try to avoid them. For harder edges like you have here on the camera right cheek, object selection with a little 0.5-1 pixel feathering in PS works well and quickly. Just shift+f5 after you’ve selected the skin and then fill with white paint with the layer mask selected. Anyway, I’d rather get the shot I want and fix the color when necessary, and gradient maps are super powerful! I also use them for more brute force color grading when more subtle shifting of hues is just not cutting it. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
Hodie wroteThanks, Matt! I'll come back to this and try it out. Appreciate it!I just tried the gradient map and it took out a lot of the red blotches on the skin, but I think it makes the skin look more yellow. His skin did actually have some red blotches on it because it was so damn hot that day. The unedited RAW shows this.
I've been looking at this photo so much now, I've kind of lost track of what I'm supposed to be correcting. Dumb question: What is it that I should be looking to fix? Here's the unedited photo (RAW > JPEG).a quick edit if you don't mindThanks, Gabriel! I don't mind at all. That's why I put the unedited up there. Do you mind sharing what steps you took?So it was a quick step of creating a hue/saturation layer in Photoshop then I removed any green saturation and tweaked the yellow towards more skin color to even out with the rest of the skin. Used a brush to go over the parts I wanted to focus on.
Hope that helps. It could be done better of course but just a quick thought I had on how to approach it.
Awesome, thanks for sharing! I think my problem is I have trouble seeing the problem areas. This whole exercise has shown me to pay closer attention to skin color, contamination, and how it can differ in the shadow and highlight areas.
p.70 #8Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
Hodie wrote: GabrielPhoto wroteHodie wroteGabrielPhoto wroteHodie wrotefuzzykeys wroteI just did this a few days ago on some shots of a model in a pool where there was major blue color contamination from light reflecting off the water. Gradient maps fixed it up nicely and with minimum fuss without being too strong as to be unrealistic looking and fail to take the fact that the water is in fact blue out of the equation 100%. I think the result eliminated the distraction. The shots are on my last Instagram post but I will try to export some versions for the forum as well. You do need a tidier mask than you would for a less brute force method like selective color or hue/saturation but IMHO this works very well and is a mainstay in my portrait editing workflow because things like this simply happen all the time to me even when I try to avoid them. For harder edges like you have here on the camera right cheek, object selection with a little 0.5-1 pixel feathering in PS works well and quickly. Just shift+f5 after you’ve selected the skin and then fill with white paint with the layer mask selected. Anyway, I’d rather get the shot I want and fix the color when necessary, and gradient maps are super powerful! I also use them for more brute force color grading when more subtle shifting of hues is just not cutting it. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!I just tried the gradient map and it took out a lot of the red blotches on the skin, but I think it makes the skin look more yellow. His skin did actually have some red blotches on it because it was so damn hot that day. The unedited RAW shows this.
I've been looking at this photo so much now, I've kind of lost track of what I'm supposed to be correcting. Dumb question: What is it that I should be looking to fix? Here's the unedited photo (RAW > JPEG).a quick edit if you don't mindThanks, Gabriel! I don't mind at all. That's why I put the unedited up there. Do you mind sharing what steps you took?So it was a quick step of creating a hue/saturation layer in Photoshop then I removed any green saturation and tweaked the yellow towards more skin color to even out with the rest of the skin. Used a brush to go over the parts I wanted to focus on.
Hope that helps. It could be done better of course but just a quick thought I had on how to approach it. Awesome, thanks for sharing! I think my problem is I have trouble seeing the problem areas. This whole exercise has shown me to pay closer attention to skin color, contamination, and how it can differ in the shadow and highlight areas.
You are welcome and don't worry, our brains are good at adapting to things so it can ignore stuff like that unless you train it to notice.
Also, monitor calibration is key too if you have not done it.
In any case, you will see how it will become more and more noticeable as you keep working at it.
p.70 #9Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
Since you're OK with an edit - here's my 5 minute version -
Going from the bottom layer up -
Added a little smart sharpening
General/global curves - just a bump up
Selective exposure masked for just him - he was quite underexposed compared to the BG
Selective hue saturation just on him - (-14 hue shift to help skin tone) (+22 lightness to brighten)
One more Hue/Sat adjustment layer to further desaturate and lighten yellows globally
One more Curves to give it a little pop and contrast. (S curve)
Each of these can be fine tuned further - Some of this edit is to my own eye/style which leans towards brighter and punchier - so YMMV. But the skin tone color seems decent without even going to fine tuned selective color adjustments.
Being in bright Norcal sun a lot myself I'm always shooting under greenery in shade so I always try to make sure to shoot one ColorChecker frame in each unique location to create a profile from - it really helps - but this isn't bad to work with, and the A7RIV has super dynamic range in the RAWs.
p.70 #11Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
KE_Photo wrote: Earlier quotePicked the last photo of a Headshot session this morning and did a quick mini edit to post (from the JPG).Very nice! Great skin tone. The lighting works great so I'll bite my tongue on the catch lights. ha ha.
Thanks and yeah, just like the eyelighter, the catch light for this setup has pretty unique results. So far, every customer loves it but I am sure someone will want a different look for which I got plenty of other setups just in case
p.70 #12Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
p.70 #9 - a few responses: hair is awash with LoCA, worse than before (contrast boost); macro contrast is now so strong there is not even the suggestion of detail in black content (t-shirt) nor bright areas of hair. Yellow (which was not bad in original) is now a queasy lemon tone. Facial skin is too bright and looks front lit by a torch, and is unnatural. Too much contrast automatically boosts saturation, with all too predictable results.
It all shows we see very (very) differently. The whole bright face fashion is .. just that, fashion. Being so artificial it won't age well, but it certainly has visual impact!
Balance and subtlety are the hallmarks of sound portraiture. It is why portrait lenses are designed with low contrast in mind, and why they are often not so suitable for landscapes - where you do need high contrast. In fact, the lens plays a much larger role in portraits than is commonly believed. Some very good examples of a whole lot of CZ lenses:
p.70 #13Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
philip_pj wrote:
p.70 #9 - a few responses:
Just wondering why the laundry list of technical critique for a casual shot - a jpg, made into a screenshot of an example for changing skin tone color contamination in Photoshop - then the low resolution version PNG screenshot was posted in a forum and viewed in a browser. Not exactly the formula for a master portrait image. The observations are fine, but a bit off point.
It all shows we see very (very) differently.
Agreed! Precisely what I noted as YMMV in the little tutorial screenshot all one needs to do is move a hue/sat slider 1/8 of an inch for vastly different results suited to personal taste. One doesn't even have to use the same stack of layers I showed - it's just a very quick example of how something might be approached on a very basic, unrefined level. All I used was the "auto mask select subject " feature - very sloppy too! Copy/Invert the mask on another layer and shift the BG color /brightness - or do a zillion other things....paint in or our any amount of adjustment on a fine tuned level down to the pixel in the masks - it's wide open.
Balance and subtlety are the hallmarks of sound portraiture.
Agreed but while the Photoshop technique demo wasn't really much about portraiture - there are no set rules or formulas. There are many styles of portraiture, and many styles of editing/finishing. Subject matter and usage should also influence the direction. A baby, business exec, and rock musician don't all get the same lens, camera settings, lighting and finishing work, in my view. YMMV.
p.70 #15Portrait and People Image Thread using Sony
philip_pj wrote:
It all shows we see very (very) differently. The whole bright face fashion is .. just that, fashion. Being so artificial it won't age well, but it certainly has visual impact!
