Out here in the SF Bay Area.... I've taken and retouched some corporate headshots like this. Looks like face, forehead and hair is blown out from light. Need color match skin to boot...
Peano
Posts: 3,714
Washington, District of Columbia, US
-Ira wrote: In the meantime...does anyone have suggestions on how I can balance the skin color between face and body in post?
I would use two selective color adjustment layers.
In the first, in the reds, decrease black levels to lighten the tan. Black mask, then paint that effect in on the darker skin areas from the neck down.
In the second, in the reds and perhaps also the yellows, increase black levels to darken skin. Black mask, paint that in on the face. (Obviously you can adjust each of these layers to make the skin as dark or as light as you want it.)
Also, there's a white area above her eyes that needs extra attention. The technique described here might do for that.
Looknsee Photography wrote: Corporate headshots tend to occupy a tiny part of a page. Therefore, you can solve all your problems by cropping closer to her face.
I think the face is still too bright. The close crops are usually for website and networking sites such as LinkedIn.
With the shots being as small as they are on LI, the face would only look whiter with less detail. It's best to fix it before they deliver it.
Not really a corporate style crop...that would help eliminate much of the contrast difference. This style is more a social media portrait crop.
You could do a mask for the brighter areas and bring the exposure down a bit. For the near-blown spots, you could use a gradient layer to even out the tone/color.
If any of that is way over your head, do a casting call and get a pro to help you out..maybe in trade.
Peano wrote: I would use two selective color adjustment layers.
In the first, in the reds, decrease black levels to lighten the tan. Black mask, then paint that effect in on the darker skin areas from the neck down.
In the second, in the reds and perhaps also the yellows, increase black levels to darken skin. Black mask, paint that in on the face. (Obviously you can adjust each of these layers to make the skin as dark or as light as you want it.)
Also, there's a white area above her eyes that needs extra attention. The technique described here might do for that.
Thanks for the detailed instruction and examples. I will certainly give this a go.