Photoshop Action advice

[cherubb2]

Does anyone know a good photoshop action combination with or without a specific action set to improve skin tones with babies? I'm working with CS3
Thanks so much!
Teresa

[tdyannd]

I've never been very happy with any actions that I've found for babies. I generally work with a ton of layers and hue changes. I'm interested to see if anyone else has any input.

[chuckdee]

What sort of problems are you having with the skin tones?


__________________________________________________ ___
Chuck Dee - AKA Chris
"A good photograph is knowing where to stand." -Ansel Adams
www.bellissimofoto.com
www.rhinobldg.com

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Originally Posted by cherubb2

Does anyone know a good photoshop action combination with or without a specific action set to improve skin tones with babies? I'm working with CS3
Thanks so much!
Teresa

Wouldn't that be akin to looking for an action that would convert a B&W photo to beautiful color?

[Rain Lily]

How about just doing a custom white balance when you take the shot?

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Originally Posted by Rain Lily

How about just doing a custom white balance when you take the shot?

Bingo! Then do a little Vibrance/Saturation and a light warm up filter in PS.

[chuckdee]

Originally Posted by Rain Lily

How about just doing a custom white balance when you take the shot?

I was going to go there but I wanted to hear what the OP had to say. Are the colors, exposure off? If you're a professional, you should know about custom WB (gray card) and exposures??

When I think "improving skin tone". I immediately think acne and rosacea, issues babies don't have.

__________________________________________________ ___
Chuck Dee - AKA Chris
"A good photograph is knowing where to stand." -Ansel Adams
www.bellissimofoto.com
www.rhinobldg.com

[Rain Lily]

Originally Posted by chuckdee

When I think "improving skin tone". I immediately think acne and rosacea, issues babies don't have.

No, but they do have red skin, or a touch of jaundice, or rashes, especially when they are newborns. Sometimes feet, hands, face, and trunk are all different colors with newborns, too, due to immature circulatory systems and/or reactions to room temp changes.

I'm thinking of skin tone improvement addressing red tones or maybe even really pale tones sometimes; skin smoothing would address the rashes or other baby blemishes that arise sometimes, such as skin flakes.

It would help to hear what problems the OP is having.

[Steven G Webb]

I don't think making a "one-button" cure-all is possible. As Sis pointed out babies, especially newborns present a variety of challenges and not all require the same fix. Skin colors can run cool (blueish) or reddish from room temperature changes. Skin tones can run jaundice (yellow) or be splotchy with a mixture of challenges. Skin texture could be dry and flaky or overly oily.

In my opinion, the very best method is probably also the most labor intensive. I'd work these images case-by-case and batch-by-batch. Starting with the appropriate white balance is an anchor point. Shooting RAW would be most preferable and having a system for doing that a necessity. The RAW format in and of itself is not a magic bullet; however, when executed properly from the creation step to the final processing it does offer the widest range of both enhancement and correction. In the processing, using layers and masks and then blending them well also is important.

What about consistency and uniformity? I guess that comes with experience. Good note taking and following the same basic steps for images taken under the same conditions might help. Just like getting a consistent white balance requires modifying the setting each time the light changes, changing re-touching steps with each difference in setting helps. This is one reason studio photographers love their studio, so many things can be held constant. When sessions move from room to room, outdoors to indoors so many variables get added to the mix, it can be laborious to make the end products look uniform against one another. While photography is completely visual in some aspects, manipulating photographs can be totally mathematic.

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Originally Posted by Rain Lily

No, but they do have red skin, or a touch of jaundice, or rashes, especially when they are newborns. Sometimes feet, hands, face, and trunk are all different colors with newborns, too, due to immature circulatory systems and/or reactions to room temp changes.

I'm thinking of skin tone improvement addressing red tones or maybe even really pale tones sometimes; skin smoothing would address the rashes or other baby blemishes that arise sometimes, such as skin flakes.

It would help to hear what problems the OP is having.

Yeah, the kid might look like Rain Lilly's Avatar!