Skin Tones and PSP

[MelP]

Hi everyone,

I've started using Paint Shop Pro. (My trial of Photoshop ran out and couldn't see paying that much at this moment). Anyways, my question is this:
How can I get the skin tones right with PSP? It doesn't allow me to see the CMYK values (or perhaps I'm not doing something right). I am using Paint Shop Pro X.

Thanks for any and all tips,
Mel

[David_S85]

Hi everyone,
I've started using Paint Shop Pro. (My trial of Photoshop ran out and couldn't see paying that much at this moment). Anyways, my question is this:
How can I get the skin tones right with PSP? It doesn't allow me to see the CMYK values (or perhaps I'm not doing something right). I am using Paint Shop Pro X.
Thanks for any and all tips,
Mel

Very little, if any CMYK support in any version of PSP. The eyedropper only reports RGB values. (I'm not using ver. X yet).

Suggestions would be to make sure your shots are white balanced properly in-camera first. If shooting RAW, you might want to also place a white card somewhere off to the side of a critical shot, if possible, and do post tweaks with that. YMMV, as always.

There is a not too well known Manual Color Correction tool in all later versions of PSP that lets you select an area of a pic, and compare it to known swatches of color, thereby re-balancing the shot. That would be an 8-bit tool, and its kinda hidden in PSP X, from what I've read, but it is in there somewhere. That tool has saved me more times than I could count.

Hope that helps.

[DavidTO]

I can't work without either LAB or CMYK numbers for me to check skin tones against. They're a fantastic guide, and much better and more reliable than your eyes.

[Stacey L]

I use PSP 9 and I had great luck with the skin tones tutorial on smugmug! Try it out and let us know if it worked for you, too!

I can't work without either LAB or CMYK numbers for me to check skin tones against. They're a fantastic guide, and much better and more reliable than your eyes.

[David_S85]

I use PSP 9 and I had great luck with the skin tones tutorial on smugmug! Try it out and let us know if it worked for you, too!

Good point. That's a great tute! Linky here (http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone).

[MelP]

thanks for everyone's replies.
I have looked at the tutorial and it is great for Photoshop, but I don't see how to make it work for PSP.

mel