Need your help on skin tone

[felix.reichardt]

Posting this picture again after some hopefully better PP. I would like to ask you guys whether I got the skin tone right (pleasing might be the better word) or at least better this time. I need a second opinion

Note: On the AdobeRGB version the tone is slightly more saturated. Not sure how to reproduce this here, but you will see what I mean when when you download and watch it in PS or MS Image/Fax Viewer.

(I just bought some color gels for background lighting so if that works out I hope to improve my backgrounds next time)

[felix.reichardt]

with slightly less cyan

Picture deleted after viewing on calibrated screen ...

[Max@Home]

felix.reichardt,

The first looks OK on screen, and indeed better when downloaded and opened in PS Elements

The second one has a nasty greenish/yellow cast in it on *my* screen, in PS Elements the skin improves, but not the backdrop.

Hope this helps some, as it's only *my* eyes and *my* monitor, yours may differ

Kindest regards, thanks again for sharing and I admire your persistence to 'get it right', great attitude!

Max@Home

[Padre]

Felix, if I may play with your mind a bit.. I opened your image in ps.* The first thing I noticed was it indeed looked even better in ps than on the forum.* Looking at the image it looked like it might have an ever so slight red cast. I pulled back the red cast a bit and below is what I got.* The change is the most apparent in the background.* If you are offended I will delete it immediately.* I placed the two versions side by side and had my wife come in a look at them.* She said that if she were a paying client looking at proofs she would choose your version compared to mine.* So you have done a great job with this beautiful child.

[felix.reichardt]

Thanks for your reply. No problem editing my picture in this case.

She liked my first picture or the secind one better than yours

Yeah, this skin tone thing drives me crazy actually. I am actually never happy and I got a staple of print outs with all kind of different tones. I edit a picture in the night ... it looks great and when I look at it in the morning ... arrrg doesn't look so great anymore.

The worst thing is the different color spaces and internet explorers and viewers which have no color management ... So if I post something here it looks totally different than in PS. Colors also look different from Canon Digital Photo Professional to Photoshop.* I have the feeling the only color managed software on my PC is PS. I already got a color calibration device for my screen from ColorVision.

The color problems goes further when it comes to printing. If I really do more portraits and sell them to friends (still as hobby) then I might switch from my Canon Printer to a pro lab or have to calibrate my printer as well. I found that calibrating with Adobe Gamma or other software is a very difficult thing.

Thanks again for your reply and cheers to your wife for picking my version ...

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by Max@Home

felix.reichardt,
The first looks OK on screen, and indeed better when downloaded and opened in PS Elements
The second one has a nasty greenish/yellow cast in it on *my* screen, in PS Elements the skin improves, but not the backdrop.
Hope this helps some, as it's only *my* eyes and *my* monitor, yours may differ
Kindest regards, thanks again for sharing and I admire your persistence to 'get it right', great attitude!
Max@Home

Thanks for your reply, your are right with the yellow/green cast in the second edition. The "truth" might be somewhere in the middle. I think I did the reduction of blue to far.

Well what I read in books, articles - it's not about the true skin tone it's about pleasing skin tones ... and that's again personal, which means nobody ever gets it "right" -

[felix.reichardt]

Oh .. sh... I apologize for the second try ... I did that one at work and its totally off in color ...

[felix.reichardt]

Padre,

I did the same with my wife and she also liked my version better but I tend
a bit more to yours.

So I decided that my final image is in the middle of your an my version.

Thanks again

[Padre]

I agree, color management is a never ending issue. I calibrate my monitor using spyder but even between two different calibrated monitors, the image appears different on each. As I understand it, the human eye has the ability to adjust very quickly and will overlook slight color differences so that is why things look differently if you leave the computer and return later. I think the most important thing is what the print looks like and if the subject or photog is happy with the final result. I do find it helpful to convert my images to srgb for web viewing and I assume you do the same. I have a 21" Dell Ultra Sharp monitor being delivered tomorrow and I am excited to get it! It is going to look like a movie screen compared to my current 15". Again, great shot and I know they will be happy.

[felix.reichardt]

Well, in case you want to have another look tomorrow with your new toy (hope you did not buy it because of our
conversation here ... hahahaha).

I edited them and will not change them anymore. Lets see whether her mother orders a couple of prints.
http://felix-reichardt.smugmug.com/Public%20Area/252946

Cheers and have a karma