Help With Tan Lines

[superdamon]

Hey all, I shot a set of sr. pictures, and the young lady had spent the day before at the pool. They are friends of ours, and even though they fully expect to see the tan lines on her chest/shoulders in the finished product, I'd love to be able to at least lessen their prominence. I use Photoshop Elements 9, but none of my typical tricks produce a natural-looking solution.

Any ideas are welcome, and thanks in advance!

EXIF
Model - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
ExposureTime - 1/80 seconds
FNumber - 4.50
ISOSpeedRatings - 100
Flash - Off

[fais54]

This may help lessen the appearance a bit:

1. Duplicate Layer
2. Create new empty layer
3. Take the 'Paint' tool and set an opacity to like 22 (or the lowest to where the paint isn't obvious) and set the mode to 'Hue'.
4. Using the 'Control' key, select an area of skin that matches her tanned skin color.
5. Paint over the tan lines.

I use Photoshop CS4, but I think these steps can apply to your version as well.

[JFSanders]

Good suggestion Fais!

The tan lines are pretty light and that should do the trick. But look carefully for banding and color separation at the edges. Soft brush and go easy.

Jim

[superdamon]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I really appreciate it. I'm working at it, and it seems that I'm getting a better color match, but I lose the texture of the skin - it seems like smears where the tan lines are. Am I doing it wrong, or is that just what's going to happen?

[Hatch1921]

Give this a try.... should be helpful

Hatch

YouTube - ‪How To Use Photoshop For Easy Skin Tone Correction Tutorial By Sean Armenta‬‏

[spookie]

Question, did you try to "hide" the tans lines by lightening the image? I was looking and darkened the image some and she has different shades of tans lines, so you may have to grab different areas on different sections of the tans lines. Let us know how it comes out, I'm really curious.

[superdamon]

Sorry, haven't had a chance to respond on here in a few days. The video was for CS5 instead of Photoshop Elements. I'm sure the same principles apply, but in further online searching to figure out how to work with a curves adjustment layer in Elements, it seemed that it would be quite a bit of effort for a workaround with little chance of actually emulating what was in the video. Someday when I upgrade from Elements I'll look forward to it, though!

In answer to the brightening question, no, I didn't brighten in an effort to hide the tan lines.

I stated in my original post that I'd like to at least lessen the prominence of the tan lines, and that's where I've ended up. Through a mix of healing brush, spot healing, and clone stamp (usually at 100% opacity, but occasionally lightened if necessary) I've managed to improve the appearance. Results have varied (I've managed in a few to remove them altogether, others still show tan lines, although much more faint) depending on how much other skin is available to sample from and how even the lighting is, but I feel I've improved considerably at these techniques. Or maybe that's just me looking at the bright side of all of it.

Thanks again for your help!