How to Remove Gray Skin From a Photo

Sometimes uneven lighting compromises irreplacable photos and retouching is necessary.

Balanced lighting is essential for capturing an attractive and clear image of a human subject in a photograph. When lighting is not optimal -- because of shadows, an inadequate light level or mechanical errors -- a gray pallor may appear on the skin. Fortunately, this problem may be corrected with a graphics software program or a sophisticated digital camera's editing tools. Making an adjustment to save the shot generally requires balancing cyan, magenta, yellow, gray, black and white color levels.

Things You'll Need

• Digital image
• Digital photo editing software or a digital camera with editing tools

Instructions

1. View the photo in a software program -- such as Photoshop, ACDSee, GIMP or Paint -- or a digital camera with editing options. If available, find a photo that contains an image of the subject with normal skin color.

2. Find the CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) or the black, white and gray color level controls on the device or program.

3. Reduce the cyan level until it represents one-fourth to one-third of the magenta and yellow levels.

4. View the edited image and compare it to the image with normal skin tone. If the gray pallor is still present, use the black, white and gray color controls to reduce the amount of gray in the photo.

5. Continue to adjust the levels until the skin tone appears normal.

6. Decide whether the changes improved the subject and the rest of the photo effectively. If the adjustments overcorrected the photo's other elements, adjusting only the skin tone is possible using Photoshop. In Photoshop, revert to the original image and use the Adjust Color for Skin Tone option. This tool adjusts only the subject's skin tone and leaves the rest of the photo in its original form, but it requires using a wand to select the affected areas, which is more complicated than using the color level adjustment controls. Follow the tool's prompts, and consult the program's help guide to navigate the tool's execution, if necessary.

References

• Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing: Lee Varis and Rick Sammon
• My 3 Boybarians: Photo Retouching: Making Those Gray, Dull Photos Pop
• The Adobe Photoshop Elements 9: Book for Digital Photographers: Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski