In need of sun: A poor attempt at creating a fake tan

[Liz Caldwell]

I tried both. I couldn't make it look quite right...

Perhaps I'll try again with a different picture.... Did you try it with this photo?

[jiminyClickit]

wannabehorsephotographer,

The fair-skinned, blue-eyed look is not often a good edit subject for anything golden bronze, but I found a little touch of something similar. Let's call it a healthy glow. This is a great face, so I've really enjoyed this process.



Copy of original is base layer:

- Layer 2 is a lightened high-contrast copy, Overlay mode, 20% Opacity.
- Layer 3 is a red and yellow Hue-enhanced copy, Darken mode, 20% Opacity.
- Hair and eyes are erased from Layer 3.
- Layer 4 is a red and yellow Hue-enhanced copy, Overlay mode, 20% Opacity.
- Hair and eyes are erased from Layer 4 also.
- A vignette (Layer 5) is added to reduce distraction from background and hair.
- Layer 5 is set to Darken mode, 80% Opacity.
- Tan spots and eye shadow are added to the vignette layer, and adjusted individually.
- Gradient to darken lower left corner is last layer, Darken mode, 100% Opacity.

[FloridaMike]

Originally Posted by wannabehorsephotographer

Am craving some summer sunshine around here - so I decided to try and create a fake tan (oh, and it looks fake) and sun bleached hair on someone. I've been wondering what a good way was to create a tan, but haven't seen any tutorials. I have seen a few on changing hair color though, but none seem to work if I want to make it lighter. Here is my "attempt" - only sharing in case someone can use what I've found out to create something a little less SCARY!

Before


After


...and here's how it goes - or doesn't:
1. Duplicate layer, set blending mode to multiply and opacity to about 60% and masked everything but skin.
2. Created new layer. Set blending mode to soft light and painted skin with various shades of dark grey. Set opacity to about 75%.
3. Created another soft light layer and painted lighter greys along some areas that still needed darkening. Duplicated layer and set to various opacities until skin looked "tan"
4. To do the hair I set a new layer to soft light and painted the hair with a yellow color. I set the opacity fairly low, and duplicated the layer twice to create a more natural looking light color (I don't think the hair turned out as bad as the tan)

Does anyone know a better way to acheive this look? Help!

You gals are a trip! I never would have thought about using photography to see how you would look with a different hair color. But then I have never thought about coloring my hair!

[JiggaRoll]

Here is my attempt.

Pretty much the same process as Liz Caldwell.

Duplicate Background.
Adjust colour using mixture of colour balance and curves and saturation, masking out hair and background so as not to affect them.
Adjust levels and curves to make it look nice.
Couple of touches with dodge tool to darken forehead.
All steps on different layers to easy to adjust if needed.

Don't think I got the skin tone exactly right, my laptop doesn't have the greatest monitor on it

Tried using those tutorials to change the hair colour but had the same problem as Liz Caldwell and couldn't get a result that I liked.

* whoops forgot that I also got rid of a few skin blemishes *

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Originally Posted by JiggaRoll

Here is my attempt.
Don't think I got the skin tone exactly right, my laptop doesn't have the greatest monitor on it
Tried using those tutorials to change the hair colour but had the same problem as Liz Caldwell and couldn't get a result that I liked.

I think you did good - much better than my original! Don't know why you are having the hair color problem. I tried it with this picture (without the tan) and thought it turned out okay. Maybe my standards are just lower I will try it again and note my settings, maybe that will help.

Originally Posted by FloridaMike

You gals are a trip! I never would have thought about using photography to see how you would look with a different hair color. But then I have never thought about coloring my hair!

You never know what clever girls will think of - lol

Originally Posted by jiminyClickit

wannabehorsephotographer,
The fair-skinned, blue-eyed look is not often a good edit subject for anything golden bronze, but I found a little touch of something similar. Let's call it a healthy glow. This is a great face, so I've really enjoyed this process.

I love this! Really makes the eyes pop. I can't believe the difference between my original and the edits.

Originally Posted by Liz Caldwell

I tried both. I couldn't make it look quite right...

Perhaps I'll try again with a different picture.... Did you try it with this photo?

I tried it with this photo. I'll try again and note my settings.