CORRECTING FLESH TONES THAT ARE TOO RED

Often times, when you scan an image of person, you end up with flesh tones that are just too red. There are a number of ways to beat the beet-red face in Photoshop 5. This method uses the Hue/Saturation command.

STEP 1: Go to the File menu and Open the image you want to work on. For this tip, I'm using the example to the right. (Okay, I know this picture is a bit of an exaggeration when it comes to "too red" flesh tones, but it serves its purpose well.)

Under the Image menu, select Mode and in the pop-up menu that appears, make sure there is a checkmark next to RGB Color. If there is a checkmark next to Indexed Color, CMYK or any of the other modes in the menu, convert to RGB mode by scrolling down the list and clicking on RGB Color.

STEP 2: The Hue/Saturation command allows you to increase or decrease an image's hue and saturation. Hue is essentially a color (such as red or green) and saturation refers to the intensity of that color (increase the saturation of pale pink and you get hot pink). It also allows you to increase or decrease the hue and saturation of just a particular range of colors in an image (i.e. the Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyans, Blues, Magentas).

To bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box, go to the Image menu, scroll down to Adjust, and in the pop-up menu, select Hue/Saturation. (NOTE: You can also use the keyboard shortcut: Command U for Macintosh/Control U for Windows.) The following dialog box will appear:

Make sure the Preview box is checked but DO NOT check the Colorize box.

Along the left side of the Hue/Saturation dialog box, there are a series of buttons you can check. Master is always checked by default, and if you leave Master selected, any changes you make to the Hue, Saturation or Lightness (by entering a value or using the sliding triangle) will change the hue, saturation and/or lightness for all of the colors in your image (which you very rarely want to do). Most of the time, you just want to alter a particular range of colors by clicking on one of the other buttons (R=Reds, Y=Yellows, G=Greens, C=Cyans, B=Blues, M=Magentas), and then adjust your Hue, Saturation and/or Lightness.

For this tip, we want to decrease the amount of red in this guys face so click on the Reds button. Move the dialog box so you can see your image in the background. Watch what happens to your image when you decrease (move the slider to the left) the Saturation. You can also increase (move the slider to the right) the Lightness. You can eliminate the yellow jaundiced look by selecting the Yellows, and decreasing the yellow Saturation. Here is the before and after: