Colour correction for skin tones

[ELAY]

I was browsing the SmugMug site, considering signing up, when I came across their help/support pages for prints.

It would seem that they get a lot of returns for skin tones, and as a result have posted a very good guide to correcting (caucasion) skin tones in post-processing.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone

EL

[windrider86]

Wjhat a helpful site. Thanks for posting that!

[ELAY]

Maybe I should use their techniques on my avatar photo...bit too much red?

[terryjoey]

Thanks for the link.

[WooD]

I've never had a return thru smugmug. Sold several 16x20's I was sweating over a little, but got great comments on them. Then again parents might not be too critical when it comes to pics of their kids.

[NaturesPixel]

@ WooD whats the return/percentage you get back from smugmug??

[ELAY]

I didn't mean to suggest or imply with my post that SmugMug gets an inordinate number of returns or anything. If I had been more careful, I would have said, "It seems that of their returns, a high percentage were driven by skin tone complaints."

On the contrary, they seem to take their printing very seriously, based on the material laid out on the website. They go through an explanation of their printing process, describe their auto-correction process, give consumers the choice of no correction, and seem to do a careful analysis of the causes for returns. The results of that analysis are a series of explanations and fixes directed at helping customers understand why prints can disappoint, and at how to avoid disappointment with technique and fixes (such as the stuff at the link I posted).

I have no firsthand experience with the service, but I am tempted to try.

EL