do I have a "pleasing skin tone"?

[Six Bees]

I have to say that I still have a difficult time with skin tone. What I think looks good almost always has a lower y value...then I still have a hard time with fixing it. I know the steps of doing it..but what to change the numbers to, freaks me out. For example the tip of my son's nose was C10 M33 Y31 to start what would YOU do with that...how do you go about figuring out what the numbers SHOULD be? Right now I used PS2 and the "portrait CMYK adj" action to try to fix it. I now have C10 M35 Y39. Honestly it seems too yellow to me, but it could be that my images are always low on yellow.
Here are two shots, how does the skin look to you all? AND which do you like best. I struggled to get my four to do this. I was already stressed out from all the ironing and dressing...then to try to get my 13 month old to stay put AND keep the girls looking at ME and not their brother. I now know I have more patients for OTHER people's kids! I ended up with these two shots. They are the best I could muster...and in each photo I have taken someone's head from another shot where they looked better. Thank heaven for photoshop! Thanks in advance for helping me out...oh and any suggestions to make this better is quite welcome! I am fighting the urge to just do a black and white conversion! I am just feeling so discouraged with these...something just isn't right...I am sure I just need to leave them for a bit and look with fresher eyes. Again thanks for the help!
Carrie
http://carriebassettphotography.smugmug.com/photos/226987434-M.jpg
http://carriebassettphotography.smugmug.com/photos/226987973-M.jpg

[Qarik]

between those 2 shots I like the 1st better. Still even in the 1st one the skins seem a tad washed out as well and not even across the kids. The cutey on top in picture #1 has the most pleasing skin tone out of all of them. Overall it seems a bit difficult to get the exposure right on these shots because of the very dark clothes vs white as can be background.

[photoj]

Keep it up, I think the overall skin tone in the first looks good, with the exception of the little one in the front middle. You might have to get a little more advanced in PS an use a selective mask to correct him diffrently than the rest.

I have to admit though his expression in the second shot who have me cropping in an individual of him, it is priceless.

photoj

[JimW]

My suggestion is to get the exposure right first, then deal with the color balance. In the first photo, there is a large difference in the amount of light hitting the little guy's face vs. the girl in back. In my opinion, that difference needs to be reduced, so they are closer together in exposure.

So, perhaps the positioning of the light(s) is not just right. Maybe you could raise the light source higher, so the distance to all four faces is roughly the same.

As far as color, it doesn't look too far off to me. The cmyk formulas are guidelines, and there's nothing that says you can't stray from them. But it's important to get exposure nailed first. Also, when you sample the image with the color sampler to check cmyk, sample carefully in similar tones on each face.

Here's something I do that might be helpful. After making a print, I pin it up in a prominent place, upside down, where I'll see it a lot over the next few days. Let it seep in. The reason for putting it upside down is that it gives the brain a split second to look at JUST the color, before the brain recognizes the image. If it's right side up, the brain recognizes the image immediately, and then fails to see JUST the color on its own. I used to do color correction in the printing industry, and we always looked at press sheets upside down for this reason.

I am sure I just need to leave them for a bit and look with fresher eyes.Excellent idea. Walk away for a while. It works.

One final note: I know you didn't ask about this so hope you don't mind my mentioning. Hands are wonderful and expresssive things. Where are their hands?

Hope some of this is useful. Good luck.