Change skin tone?

[terrypin]

Can someone advise me how to change the skin tone of the lady to be similar to that of the man please?

I'm using PSP 8 but I imagine the technique will be similar in less ancient versions.



The intended final image will be relatively low in resolution, so my expectations are not high.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[hartpaul]

I presume you want the skin colouring to be similar. I have done similar when I had a background curtain which changed colour between shots due to auto white balance giving a different result from a close portrait to a full length shot.
To get them balanced I selected an average area of the required tone using the selection tool, applied a Gaussian Blur , and then used the eyedropper tool to then write down the RGB values of that blurred section (the blurring eliminates pixel differences and gives an average value).
Then I used the Red Green Blue (Adjust > Color Balance > Red/Green/Blue or shorrtcut Shift U) and slowly changed values of one colour at a time till they matched.
eg you need 140 Red and the image you need to change says 155 R , you need to reduce the Red value about 6 steps to -6 and hit OK , then check your red value. If it needs further tinkering do an Undo first and then add 1 red or subtract red and hit OK again . Keep doing this til you get your red right. Then Undo and repeat with your Green values and finally youur Blue values. Remember to Undo after each change to get back to your original. Finally you may need to do a levels adjustment to lighten or darken the final image . This is because if the number of + values and - values do not match they will overall lighten or darken the image. eg doing -15 Red and + 5 Blue will give a slightly darker image. Finally you may have to add a fudge factor and add a bit more of one colour to get what you like.

[terrypin]

Thanks a lot Paul, I'll tackle it that way.

(No magic bullet or script then!)

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[wds937]

Here's an approach you might want to try.

• Use the freehand selection tool to select the woman's face. (You will want to do a better job than I did for this demo.)
• Adjust > Color Balance > Manual Color Correction...
• With the dialog open, hover the cursor over a part of the woman's face, maybe on her forehead, and click the left mouse button.
• Move the cursor over a corresponding part of the man's face and click the right mouse button.
• Click OK.
• You may have to go back and forth on this a few times to get the color balance you want.
• Once you are satisfied, Selections > Select None
• Continue editing or save the resulting image.

Note that I did this using PSP 8. In newer versions of PSP, the Manual Color Correction tool has been removed from the user interface. You can use the Customize feature to add it back.

[terrypin]

Great, that seems a lot simpler, many thanks!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK