All language subtitles for 4. Fixing inconsistencies in skin colors

Let's move on to working

on the color of our photo.

We can see a few issues here.

First of all,

there's quite a strong redness on the forehead, on the nose.

Also on the ear

and so on.

Mm hmm.

Additionally, there are some areas that seem to yellow

here, like over here, here.

And the neck and the chest maybe are too yellow as well.

It might be easier to see this if we increase the saturation

so we can use the hue saturation layer for that.

And just let's move the slider drastically to the right

so we can better see the colors.

As you can see, the forehead is pretty red.

The nose as well.

We can also see the yellow towns

that are standing out a bit too much.

So we will take care of that.

Okay, let's remove that for now.

The way I work on color is very simple.

Actually.

I selectively mark each area that stands out

and use one of the adjustment layers to guide the color

in the right direction.

I showed you the quick mask mode right at the beginning.

So now we will be using it intensively.

We enable it by pressing the cue key and then using a black brush

and we can paint over the area we want to select.

So let's change our brush size.

We will be taking care of the forehead at first.

Let's

make the flow a bit higher

so we can draw easily.

And let's select our forehead.

Okay, We exit the quick

mask mode by pressing cue again and we have our selection.

Now let's choose an adjustment layer

to fix this area.

We have several tools to choose from.

We could we could use hue, saturation, color, balance, or even curves.

But I usually use the selective color

layer for our skin.

It allows us to choose colors from both

the RG, B and C and wake ranges,

and we can deeply edit each of those colors.

So let's select selective color.

We have our selection on the mask

and we have our selective color tool right over here.

In our case, we want to saturate the redness on the forehead

so we select reds from from the colors available.

And usually it's enough to slightly reduce magenta

from reds to to get a better shade of the skin tone.

So let's do it gradually right now.

Let's slide it to the left.

So we remove magenta from the reds

like that.

And let's see the before and after

we had our very red forehead.

Now it's slightly less red

and we can actually leave it at that, I think.

And now we can do the exact same thing with the nose.

So let's get into our quick mask mode.

Pressing Q

We select the area we want to edit with the black brush.

We exit the quick mask mode.

We have our selection and we select the selective color adjustment layer.

Again, we want to remove magenta us from the reds.

So let's slide this to the left

and I like that.

Okay, let's continue.

We move over to

the ear, enter the quick mask mode,

select the most red areas

that bother us and exit quick mask

selected color,

and we remove magenta from the reds.

Take a look at how nicely the skin tone has become.

Even we have some yellow color here as well,

so we will fix that later.

Let's look at the entire photo.

Do we still have any issues with redness?

Maybe over here

a bit more selectively, we can select

some areas.

So let's enter quick mask

paint over the areas that seem to read

to our eye

like that

and remove magenta from the reds.

A bit more like that.

Okay. Working in this way?

Definitely requires some practice and training your eye

to see those color inconsistencies.

And that's why I always recommend working on the photo without any help.

Layers.

Our eyes are also tools, so

we need to spend time training them.

And trust me, working this way will be much easier

and faster than relying on sophisticated help layers.

Okay, let's address those

overly yellow areas right now.

Like here.

So quick mask we select the areas

that are truly so yellow to our eye.

We can

select multiple areas that seem to be similar

in the yellow illness

and exit.

Quick mask.

Let's go to the selective color again.

And this time we want to

we want to edit the yellow color instead of red.

So we choose yellow.

And this time we want to add

magenta to the yellows. So?

So it will blend with the rest of the skin a little bit better.

So let's add magenta.

I like that.

I hope you can see that the yellows turn to

red a bit more
and the color seems to be more balanced.

Okay, let's zoom out

and see if there's any other area we need to fix.

I can see that here.

There's a spot that seems to yellow.

So quick mask,

we select that area.

Exit click mask

and selective color.

And again, we want to add some magenta to the yellows.

All right.

Okay.

Let's take a look at our photo from the distance.

I think overall, the area

from the neck downwards appears slightly to yellow as well.

So let's try to shift it towards the color of the face.

This time, let's select the entire area in quick mask mode

like that.

We don't have to be too careful not to go beyond the edges

because we will only be editing the selected color.

So even if we have yellow skin selected here

and the background won't be included

in our editing range.

Exit our quick mask.

Select selective color again

and let's try to add a touch of magenta once more

to that whole area.

Okay, let's see what

with adding a hint of cyan does very subtly.

I think this color has become a bit

more realistic and more natural for for skin tone.

Let's see the before and after.

Yeah, I think that's that looks better.

It definitely looks more even with the skin on the on the face.

So that's what we are aiming for.

Okay, let's see.

Maybe here it's still a bit too yellow

and that's selected

and here as well.

And add

the selective color

and a bit of magenta.

Right.

We can group our color editing layers together

so we can see them before and after easily.

We select them all and

press command.

G So we have a group now.

We can uncheck it and see the before.

As you can see, it was very red, some yellow parts

and now it's all very even, I would say.

Of course we don't have to have perfectly uniform color down to the pixel.

We want the overall impression to be that the skin has no discoloration.

We can also address the teeth,

which are slightly yellow,

just like before.

I will select them maybe with a slightly harder

brush
to have a better edge around the mouth.

And let's be a bit more careful this time not to select

the portions of the lips,

because probably we will have to edit the reds from the teeth.

Okay,

we exit the quick mask mode and this time

we will use the hue saturation

layer.

As you can see, the teeth have

yellowish tones, so we select the yellow color

from over here and here's my approach.

We desaturated the teeth,

but not using the saturation slider,

which will only make them

like black and white desaturated.

Instead, we use the lightness slider which will also desaturated,

but it will add a little bit of brightness to them

as you can see.

Let's check if there are any reds in in our teeth.

So let's select reds and slide

the saturation slider to see.

Yes, there's a lot of reds there.

So we can also slightly lighten them

here.

So the teeth look look much cleaner now

and more

realistic

without overdoing it.

We can do the same with the whites of the eyes.

Let's select that

slightly yellowish and reddish tone

right here.

Maybe on this side as well.

Exit our quick mask

and also use hue saturation.

And there's this icon here

that can show you what color is in this area.

So we can

we can check that

by clicking on our area.

And it's selected reds so we can lighten them a bit as well.

Not too much.

And I can I

think there's also some yellow tones over here.

Let's click.

No, but we can select the yellows and see with saturation

if there are any yellow tones in that area.

Yes, there are.

So we can lighten them

a bit as well

like that.

Okay.

So we had the before the eye was was a bit of a bit red and yellow

and now it's a bit cleaner, but still looking realistic.

I also noticed a brighter section

with a different color in the hair,

like this spot over here.

It seems a bit

bluish and a bit brighter

than than the than the hair around it.

So we can fix that too.

Let's selected with the same

with the same quick mask,

exit quick mask.

And this time we can use another adjustment layer.

It can be color balanced.

We have our area divided into shadows, midterms and highlights in this tool,

and we can

edit each of that range separately.

Since this area is rather dark.

So we will choose shadows

and let's see what we want to do with it.

We have too much blue in the hair so we can remove that

blue in the shadows and add a bit of yellows.

Let's see what it does.

Okay.

If we now have

a bit too yellow color and a bit too cyan,

we have a slider for cyan and red and we can move it toward the reds

like.

So let's see the before and after.

Before it was a very bluish.

Now it's a bit more matching

the rest of the of the hair.

I can also see that it's still a bit too

too bright.

So we can go back to our dudgeon, burn layer and fix it with our brush

with 1% flow and darken it a bit more.

Okay.

I can also see from this distance since we are at the at the dudgeon

burn stage that our nose is a bit too dark

still so we can work on it

a little bit more.

We can also lightly brighten the teeth,

especially the bottom part

so they are nice and clean.

Okay,

let's see our photo

from the distance in and let's see what we have done.

We can move our layers to our groups

so we can see the before and after, easily

before

and after.

And it seems to me

that we have a great base to move forward

where we will work.

On improving the contrast of the photo, making it less flat and more

three dimensional, and then move on to color grading

as you can see, the tools I am using are very simple and basic.

It's just a matter of training your eye

to see the colors and the differences between them.

Selecting them with the quick mask, which is very, very easy.

Choosing the right adjustment layer for the color

and just directing the color to the right direction.

That's all there is to it.

And our skin tone is now evened out

and we can do with it whatever we like in color grading stage.