Red skin tutorials

[Sue Morris]

Hi Damien, I was just choosing one of your tutorials to recommend to someone trying to deal with some red blotchy skin. I had a read through Dealing with “hot” areas of skin -- and found that suggested turning down red saturation (-50) and to vary lightness as necessary. I thought I had read one where you changed both so I kept looking and found a section in Fixing Skin – acne, scratches, veins and blemishes that dealt with red patches, where the red slider was set at +50 saturation and +75 lightness. I usually start with -50 saturation and +50 lightness so this one confused me. Are they different methods and if so when would you use one over the other?

[Damien Symonds]

May I see the skin you're dealing with?

[Damien Symonds]

@Sue Morris?

[Sue Morris]

Sorry Damien -- forgot I asked a question! As I said it was someone else's image but here is a crop

[Damien Symonds]

Are you editing this photo for somebody else?

[Sue Morris]

I was just trying to direct them to one of your tutorials -- then when I read the two that I thought would help them they recommended two very different methods.

 

[Damien Symonds]

Since this colouring is not at all bad, I would just use a version of the Handyman method.

Download PSD

[Sue Morris]

Ok but the question from the original post is still unanswered. When would you choose the +50 saturation +75 lightness settings over the -50 saturation variable lightness settings  that I usually use?

[Damien Symonds]

I don't know where you got the -50 saturation thing from, sorry.

[Sue Morris]

Here. (Dealing with “hot” areas of skin)

 

[Damien Symonds]

Oh!  But these aren't hot areas, are they?  I mean, they're just a bit more discoloured than the surrounding areas.

[Sue Morris]

Ok -- now we are getting somewhere --so red isn't just red -- how would you describe 'hot' in this context?

 

[Damien Symonds]

Glowy, of course.  You know what glowy means from the skin class.

[Sue Morris]

Yeah, I know I should, but I am not sure I have a complete handle on it -- I see what you mean when the shadows get glowy-- all the eye creases & the like, usually after levels but does that cover it all?

 

[Damien Symonds]

Sorry, does what cover what all?

[Sue Morris]

Does that cover all of what glowy is?  is it just the angry shadows?

 

[Damien Symonds]

I explained it just below the second image in the article.

[Sue Morris]

So for normal red patches of skin as covered in the blemishes article ( ignoring the skin class and the handyman method) -- counterintuitively you would use a hue/sat layer with +50 red and +75 lightness -- this prevents it becoming dull I assume.

[Damien Symonds]

Correct.