Adjust skin tone in Photoshop - Step-by-step guide

In this tutorial, I will show you how to easily adjust the skin tone in Photoshop. If you are familiar with the various functions of Photoshop and apply the right techniques, you can significantly improve your images. This guide will help you understand and implement the steps you need to follow to achieve the desired skin tone clearly.

Main Insights

To successfully change the skin tone in Photoshop, you only need one adjustment, which you implement with the gradient curve. Thanks to a defined color palette, you can ensure that the skin tones look natural and appealing. With a few clicks and adjustments, you will achieve your desired result.

Step-by-step Guide

To adjust the skin tone in Photoshop, follow these steps:

First, open the image you want to change the skin tone of. At this point, make sure you are using the correct image size and resolution. Once you have opened your image, look in the lower right corner for corrections. Here, choose the gradient curve.

Once you click on the gradient curve, a properties window will appear showing the respective gradient curve. Before proceeding, it is important to select the left symbol of the layer mask. This way, you ensure that you do not affect the layer mask, avoiding unnecessary complications.

In the next step, you need the specific skin tone you want to use. I recommend using a color palette. In my case, I use a website that I link below in the video. There you will find many different skin tones that you can use for your images. Choose the desired skin tone — for example, the second shade from the left.

To select the skin tone, you must minimize Photoshop. You can do this by grabbing the top of the screen in Photoshop with the left mouse button pressed and moving it to the left or right. Now you will see that Photoshop is minimized.

Now that the properties window is visible, double-click on the middle eyedropper. This activates this eyedropper in the preview of your image. You will see that a small eyedropper is displayed. With this eyedropper, click on the corresponding color patch while holding down the left mouse button.

After selecting the color patch, it is important to ensure that you do not reach a value of 255 for red, green, and blue. If you reach this value, you must intervene further in the hue to avoid future problems. However, it should look good when you adjust these values.

If you are satisfied with the selection, click on "OK". It is important not to save the color as the target color, which is why you click on "No".

Now you can resize your Photoshop window again. The next step requires you to click on the middle eyedropper and make a click on the skin in the image. It is possible that you do not achieve ideal results in some areas. In this case, you must click again on different areas of the image to achieve the best results.

If the red tones are still too strong, go to the red tones in the RGB area at the top and adjust them by dragging the point slightly downwards. Make sure not to overdo it and affect the white areas.

Now you can adjust the opacity of the effect. If the effect appears too strong to you, you can simply reduce the opacity slightly to achieve the desired results. In this way, you have optimally adjusted your skin tones in a straightforward manner.

Summary

In this step-by-step guide, you have learned how to easily adjust the skin tone in Photoshop. From selecting the gradient curve to using a color palette to adjusting red tones and opacity – all steps are crucial for a perfect end result.