Sean Baker wrote:
Much as Natalia points out in the HP thread, it's about doing what's right for the image.  For some, that is going to come down to using a gradient map to almost entirely replace the skin tones, albeit you'll need a number of intermediate points sampled from the image (or a more pleasing one with similar light / skin) in order to do it properly.  Other options include the Hue / Sat hue adjustment trick ala Varis, channel operations in CMYK to pull out magenta, Color Fill overlays in Hue mode, Selective Color adjustment layers as Peano mentioned, and sometimes nothing more than Saturation leveling with a Saturation mask + Hue Sat layer in Saturation blend mode.  Each has its purpose and it depends on the image and your style to determine which is most appropriate.

so where do i start to learn to the defining "flags" of the image that determines which method to use to a specific situation?
i.e. i have an image that has a shadow on the face from a tool held in front of model(like a gun) the line starts on her hairline and travels down the side of her nose down to her bikini top . . . it's a shadow that i couldn't create fill light for while shooting at the location. if you're interested i can post a link to the RAW file.
thanks
sue
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sphimages/3893540132/

Steven Aiello wrote:
Humm actually the selective color method would probably would work really well for my cry brides issue.  I find my self commonly using selective color to enhance sky, dress, eye, color, but for some reason I didn't think about masking a part of the skin that was overly red and reducing the amount of red.  Good tip.

Tip: It's generally not 'overly red' according to the way Photoshop sees colors; it's too magenta. Removing Magenta from the Reds tends to work wonders for removing exertion flushing, sunburn, red noses from crying, etc. Be careful not to remove the blush from the makeup, though.

As far as the grad mask maybe I'm not selecting enough color points.

susan patrick harris wrote:
so where do i start to learn to the defining "flags" of the image that determines which method to use to a specific situation?

Color theory helps a little bit, but most of it seems to come from practice, and establishing a collection of those flags. I've never seen a list myself, and other than the magenta/red skintone one, can't think of any off the top of my head--the solution usually just comes to me when I hit the problem (or not, which is even more common. )

A general guide to correction/enhancement is to carefully consider the problem: is it tone, color, or contrast? From there, narrowing it down further is a lot easier than trying to solve it as-a-whole, at least until you've got enough practice that this is automatic.

For your shadow example, it sounds like a primarily brightness issue, and possibly a contrast one if the shadow is pronounced. Most often the tool for that is Curves, possibly in Luminance mode, probably painted in as an Adjustment layer.