Farmers Tan - how to fix?

jmphotocraftjmphotocraft Registered Users Posts: 2,987 Major grins

I'm thinking this may not even be possible, but they have requested it. :#

-Jack

An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.

Comments

  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,167 moderator
    edited August 19, 2020

    I've never had to alter skin color but wouldn't it be possible to use a color picker to see what the difference of RGB values is between untanned and tan skin?

    Copy the base layer. Save a multi-pixel untan value from the picker (set as a wide pixel pick). Make a detail selection of the arm or other areas you want to fix, highly feathered at the tan/untan end, and hardly feathered near other edges. Save that as an alpha layer selection - would have to name it and save the alpha. Add an empty layer. Insert the saved alpha selection to the empty layer above.

    Fill the alpha selection with the untanned value from the picker, or use a brush with the picked value inside the selection(s). Then fade the upper layer back and forth until it matches using whatever blending method that makes sense. I always try a bunch until I'm satisfied with the blending method.

    Look, I'm just guessing here, but I think those would be the basic steps. Again, note that I've never tried this with skin matching, but I have done this to change shadow colors/shades in photos.

    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,167 moderator
    edited August 19, 2020

    Oh I should have added that to test if the above steps will even work for this, skip the detailed selection altogether and just dab a targeted saved skin color value in an empty layer above and play with blend modes and fades. If it does work to an extent, then go to the detailed selections (which takes an abundance of time to get right).

    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,167 moderator

    Or maybe a (reverse) variant of this technique?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK_CV8Xm7ww

    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
  • jmphotocraftjmphotocraft Registered Users Posts: 2,987 Major grins

    Thanks David, much appreciated. Here's my go at it:

    -Jack

    An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,167 moderator

    Oh, much better! How did you do the fix?

    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
  • jmphotocraftjmphotocraft Registered Users Posts: 2,987 Major grins

    Thanks. Basically... duplicate layer, magnetic lasso the two regions defined by the strap and dress, clone stamp from the tan part of the arm, play with layer opacity.

    -Jack

    An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
  • jmphotocraftjmphotocraft Registered Users Posts: 2,987 Major grins

    She ended up choosing this one for the yearbook:

    -Jack

    An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
  • joshhuntnmjoshhuntnm Registered Users Posts: 1,924 Major grins

    jmphotocraft... good job. I took a stab at it but yours is much better

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