Sascha wrote:
I got great advice about photoshop lingo/color profile when I posted last time.  I am hoping that someone can help me with this new question....

I am editing beauty shots right now, and someone gave me a critique that the skin on my neck/back/shoulders looked a bit blotchy.  Now, I'd like to find out what's a trick to correcting that without making the skin look fake/plasticy... like, retaining pore/texture but evening out the color/tone a bit? 

Thanks so much in advance!

What sometimes helps is to use the Patch toll. Draw a selection round the blotchy bit then drag that to a clear piece of skin with similar contours. Alternatively, try the "healing" (not the "spot healing") tool, take your sample from a bit of clear skin and paint over the blotches. If the blotchiness is purely colour and not brightness variations, you can sample a clear bit with the eyedropper (set to around 5x5) then paint over the blotchy bits with the paintbrush in either "color" or "hue" mode.
As usual with Photoshop there are different solutions, and it's best to try them all to see what works best.

WMcK wrote:
What sometimes helps is to use the Patch toll. Draw a selection round the blotchy bit then drag that to a clear piece of skin with similar contours. Alternatively, try the "healing" (not the "spot healing") tool, take your sample from a bit of clear skin and paint over the blotches. If the blotchiness is purely colour and not brightness variations, you can sample a clear bit with the eyedropper (set to around 5x5) then paint over the blotchy bits with the paintbrush in either "color" or "hue" mode.
As usual with Photoshop there are different solutions, and it's best to try them all to see what works best.

I totally agree! And usually you have to use different solutions from picture to picture of course ...

What I am using a lot is not only the brush in "color" or "hue" mode - also the stamp tool in any of these modes ... sometimes even better bacause the structures of "color" or "hue" will be copied too.


Michael

Narciscus Studio wrote:
Did you not perhaps push the fill light in RAW up too high?

lol FYI I got all the images in Tiff mode.  Photographer did not give me raw so I have no idea what it looked like raw.  But considering he doesn't edit his own photos, chances are that these photos are pretty much exactly how they looked when shot.

SujAS wrote:

I totally agree! And usually you have to use different solutions from picture to picture of course ...

What I am using a lot is not only the brush in "color" or "hue" mode - also the stamp tool in any of these modes ... sometimes even better bacause the structures of "color" or "hue" will be copied too.


Michael

ermmm okay I don't think I am doing this at all at a level of the stuff you are talking about... I know I can do spot healing, healing, patch or stamp... what I don't understand is "the color or hue mode"... where are those modes?!?! How do I set them... I don't see that option anywhere.. is that a CS3/4 thing??? Mine is CS2.

Sascha wrote:

ermmm okay I don't think I am doing this at all at a level of the stuff you are talking about... I know I can do spot healing, healing, patch or stamp... what I don't understand is "the color or hue mode"... where are those modes?!?! How do I set them... I don't see that option anywhere.. is that a CS3/4 thing??? Mine is CS2.

CS2 does it too, as do all previous versions of PS that I have used. When you select any painting tool, be it clone, patch, paintbrush, history brush etc, loot at the top left of your screen and you will see a box which probably contains the word "normal." This is a pull down menu where different "blending modes" can be selected. Try selecting "Color" from this. Now any painting toll will only affect the colour, not the brightness of the part you paint, i.e. it will change the colour without changing the detail. For blotchiness try selecting your foreground colour (either with the eye dropper or alt-clicking with your paint tool) and painting over your blotchy area. Only the colour will change, and the redness will change to normal skin colour. Sometimes the colour can become too saturated. In this case try the hue. What I sometimes do is to use "hue," then paint over using "color" then do a "fade paint brush" adjusting the slider to get the most natural colour, but this is a bit more advanced. Try it using first the "color" mode then the "hue" and see what suits.

WMcK wrote:

CS2 does it too, as do all previous versions of PS that I have used. When you select any painting tool, be it clone, patch, paintbrush, history brush etc, loot at the top left of your screen and you will see a box which probably contains the word "normal." This is a pull down menu where different "blending modes" can be selected. Try selecting "Color" from this. Now any painting toll will only affect the colour, not the brightness of the part you paint, i.e. it will change the colour without changing the detail. For blotchiness try selecting your foreground colour (either with the eye dropper or alt-clicking with your paint tool) and painting over your blotchy area. Only the colour will change, and the redness will change to normal skin colour. Sometimes the colour can become too saturated. In this case try the hue. What I sometimes do is to use "hue," then paint over using "color" then do a "fade paint brush" adjusting the slider to get the most natural colour, but this is a bit more advanced. Try it using first the "color" mode then the "hue" and see what suits.

OMFG!!!!!! I was blind to this feature this entire time!  I must have accidentally changed it too, I was wondering why lately when I select a lighter area with stamp and stamp over the darker area, it wouldn't reflect the lighter shade at all... lo and behold, mine was somehow set as "darken"!!! You killed 2 birds with one stone with this one... thanks a bunch!!