help- with newborn skin tones

dawnjuson

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dawn
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Hi there,

I am new to newborn photography and i am struggling with uneven skin tones. I use a coffeeshop babypowder action but am really struggling to get a consistent colour across my images. please can anyone help?

Cheers

IMG_43142.jpg


IMG_4165.jpg


IMG_4154.jpg
 
Can you expand a little on what you mean Dawn? Do you mean uneven tones from one picture to the next....?
 
thanks ryan.
What i mean is when i look at these 3 images the baby's skin looks a different colour on each one. For example if i did a montage of these 3 images it would look daft.

:thinking:
 
Oh - this is the same baby!!?

Firstly I would ditch your action. Whatever it's doing isn't helping.

Shoot with a consistent white balance - daylight or cloudy is a good starting point.

Put a grey card in a few of the shots you take so you can get an accurate white balance when you're back home on the computer.

And another tip - go by your own eyes - if they look inconsistent then change them until they look right. I would suggest that the second and third images above are too warm (although without seeing the child with my own eyes it's hard to be sure).

Are you using lightroom and shooting raw? If not I would strongly suggest you do. By doing so you give yourself the best chances of being able to create consistent tones.

Also what light are you shooting under? Indoor lights Flickr a lot and can produce different skin tones from one frame to the next. Turn off the house lights and provide your own lighting or get near a window for daylight.

Hth

Eta - a lot of people get hung up on white balance/ skin tones (myself included). But I find my eye is often the best way of getting the skin right - as opposed to grey cards or simply clicking something in the scene which should be neutral grey.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Ryan
I have beeun using coffee shop baby powder action. May re look at this.


I shoot Raw and use PS CS5. Will re look at raw settings.

These shots we taken in my conservatory- i prefer natural light for babies.

Thanks for your advice Ryan its appreciated
 
maybe that has something to do with it natural light is never the same for long there is a thread on here somewhere that shows this
 
The coffeeshop action doesn't really do anything to change the skin tone. Try googling tutorials on CMYK values for newborn skin, that teach you how to change the skin tones using curves. And, as Ryan says, use a grey card as a starting point. Since I started doing this I no longer use any baby actions - all I do is correct skin tone, lighten the skin a little and clear up any blemishes. Much easier that way, and it also means you get a consistent look through your set of images.
 
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