Skin tone not satisfactory

[chrean]

Hello everybody,
I'm a newbie since I've bought my first DSLR 2 months ago.

I took this shot of my wife and tried to enhance it with some PP, but am not satisfied with it.
Even though I love the subject , I think that at least her skin tone rendering could be better.
Any suggestion would be sincerely welcome!

Thank you!



Picture taken with:
Olympus E-520
35mm f3.5 Zuiko Digital ED Lens
f3.5, 1/100s, 100 ISO

[denja]

Welcome to DPS. I think possibly that there may be a small problem with the white balance.
I am not familiar with that camera or it's white balance settings. I took the liberty of doing a little PP on your picture. I warmed it ever so slightly and did a little work on the eyes to try and make them "pop" a little more. If you would like me to take this down, please let me know. Otherwise, let me know what you think.

Jim

[WooD]

I think your picture looks pretty good as is. To me it looks like a nice portrait captured outside on a cold day.

Adding a warming filter works well too, but I'd mask off everything except her face, and especially her teeth.

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by chrean

Hello everybody,
I'm a newbie since I've bought my first DSLR 2 months ago.

I took this shot of my wife and tried to enhance it with some PP, but am not satisfied with it.
Even though I love the subject , I think that at least her skin tone rendering could be better.
Any suggestion would be sincerely welcome!

Thank you!



Picture taken with:
Olympus E-520
35mm f3.5 Zuiko Digital ED Lens
f3.5, 1/100s, 100 ISO

[cruelphotography]

I think the original is way better than the last two posted. Her skin tones look pretty good on my screen.

You could try going in on your curves in photoshop, and use the selectors on the left side there, that lets you select your a place that should be black, neautral grey or white. For instance use her teeth on the white one, or her hair or sweater on the black one.

[luminescent]

Originally Posted by chrean

...
I think that at least her skin tone rendering could be better.
Any suggestion would be sincerely welcome!
...

For anyone constantly struggling with skin tones, there is an excellent book by Lee Varis called "Skin." It deals exclusively with "lighting, photographing and retouching faces and bodies."

The ISBN is: 0-470-047330-X

Chapter 4 deals with using photoshop's eye dropper and is a good guide on what RGB ratios should be for various ethnicities.

--

[chrean]

First off, thank you all for your comments.

@Denja: on my monitor your elaboration seems to me maybe a little too warm, resulting in a yellowish skin tone. Anyway I took the point on white balancing, and have to admit I didn't care too much about it during these first times of shooting. I should delve further into WB settings, that's for sure!

@Photophix: in your PP the eyes become more important and significant, popping out of the screen and I like the general look of the picture (even if the skin is pale when compared to the original one). How did you do that?

@Cruel: I did not know how the pickers on the curves adjustment/level worked. I have a world to discover before me now, thank you!

@Luminescent: will take a look at the book, for it looks like something that I strongly need.

@Wood: thank you, will try the warmer filter too!

Thank you again for your comments, I've found them very useful!

I've attached the original raw shot to this post just to let you see how it got out of the DSLR.

Cheers,

[WooD]

I think you did really good on your image, and post work. The original "first" shot you posted looks great.

[AlphaBjerke]

I had no problem with the skin on your original, but I must say, it really depends on our monitors. I have some pictures that looked great on my desktop, but I was aghast when I saw them on my laptop as the skin tones looked horrible.

I do agree that the eyes needed a bit of work, but other than that, great!

[chrean]

Thank you Alpha and WooD!

I will need to do some decent, if not serious, color profiling on my monitor, I guess...