Final Treatment
Original photo
The above jpeg is what one gets straight-out-of-the-camera: dull-looking, lacking in contrast and clarity. Any way to improve the photo?
Well, the standard pp is to apply levels and curves, with adjustments as needed for brightness/contrast, shadows/highlight and hue/saturation. That is then followed by USM sharpening, with a little Gaussian or smart blur thrown in at the end to take the edge off an overly sharpened image.
The improvement, depicted below, is obvious: clearer colors, sharper print.
First Post-Process
Yet something still seems amiss. Not only is the background distracting...but can we improve the skin tone ?
Almost everyone will know what is a good skin tone when they see it. Yet it is hard to pinpoint what makes a good skin tone. It is a very subjective feeling. And there are no magic numbers to punch in to produce a nice skin tone.
==
I guess skin tone is a closely guarded secret amongst professional photographers. Few talk about it, much less share what they know. Googling for skin tone how-to's reveals the various techniques and tools used, but none on how to produce beautiful skin if the sitter has a less-than-perfect skin tone.
As for me, I use the Selective Color tool, including Hue / Saturation, trying out various color combinations until I've got the skin tone I look for.
Admittedly I am not there, yet.
Sure, the print could be improved: the washed-out chinaware due to the inappropriate flash used, masking could be better, etc ... but you get the point on the skin tone, don't you ?
No, I am not talking about matching skin tone to the sitter's actual skin. But rather to print process such that the skin tone of the sitter becomes breathtakingly beautiful! Never mind if the final print result has nothing to do with reality. After all, everyone wants to look their best in print, isn't it?
Beautiful skin tone was the reason why photographers raved over Fuji's Velvia or Kodak's Vericolor in the days of film. And chose those films when they want to portray their subjects in beautiful skin tones. That is what I'm talking about.
Skin tone is therefore a very subjective issue. And because it is subjective, I consider it as the holy grail of print processing. Many clients will beat a path to your door if you succeed to produce a beautiful skin tone for your subject.
Because then your picture-taking will stand out from the crowd.
Original photo
The above jpeg is what one gets straight-out-of-the-camera: dull-looking, lacking in contrast and clarity. Any way to improve the photo?
Well, the standard pp is to apply levels and curves, with adjustments as needed for brightness/contrast, shadows/highlight and hue/saturation. That is then followed by USM sharpening, with a little Gaussian or smart blur thrown in at the end to take the edge off an overly sharpened image.
The improvement, depicted below, is obvious: clearer colors, sharper print.
First Post-Process
Yet something still seems amiss. Not only is the background distracting...but can we improve the skin tone ?
Almost everyone will know what is a good skin tone when they see it. Yet it is hard to pinpoint what makes a good skin tone. It is a very subjective feeling. And there are no magic numbers to punch in to produce a nice skin tone.
==
I guess skin tone is a closely guarded secret amongst professional photographers. Few talk about it, much less share what they know. Googling for skin tone how-to's reveals the various techniques and tools used, but none on how to produce beautiful skin if the sitter has a less-than-perfect skin tone.
As for me, I use the Selective Color tool, including Hue / Saturation, trying out various color combinations until I've got the skin tone I look for.
Admittedly I am not there, yet.
Sure, the print could be improved: the washed-out chinaware due to the inappropriate flash used, masking could be better, etc ... but you get the point on the skin tone, don't you ?
No, I am not talking about matching skin tone to the sitter's actual skin. But rather to print process such that the skin tone of the sitter becomes breathtakingly beautiful! Never mind if the final print result has nothing to do with reality. After all, everyone wants to look their best in print, isn't it?
Beautiful skin tone was the reason why photographers raved over Fuji's Velvia or Kodak's Vericolor in the days of film. And chose those films when they want to portray their subjects in beautiful skin tones. That is what I'm talking about.
Skin tone is therefore a very subjective issue. And because it is subjective, I consider it as the holy grail of print processing. Many clients will beat a path to your door if you succeed to produce a beautiful skin tone for your subject.
Because then your picture-taking will stand out from the crowd.
Related Post: Skin Tone Revisit
