Retouch skin tones for Newspaper

>> What's the best way to retouch the human skin on a color photography that's gonna be printed on a newspaper..<<
Submitted by: Robert using Photoshop 7 with Mac OS X

What do you do? (Several solutions...)

PS 911 Team says:
For newspaper reproduction in black and white:
a) work in Grayscale, and
b) add a bit of contrast.

If it is to be printed in color
a) Lower saturation
b) add contrast

Newspaper reproduction is chancy at best. While some press departments print beautiful color to news print, others just make a mess of it.

Adding contrast almost always helps: Add contrast in Photoshop (6.x/7.x) by applying a Levels adjustment layer.

In the Layers palette, click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer button and choose Levels from its pop-up menu. In the resulting Levels dialog box, leave the settings as they are and click OK.

Next, change your adjustment layer's blending mode from Normal to Hard Light. (Again, in the Layers palette)

Now, fine-tune your results by double-clicking on the Levels thumbnail in the Layers palette and adjusting the midtone, shadow, and highlight sliders.

Be careful not to change too much. Changes are more visible in the printed version than on your monitor.

Follow the same basic procedure to reduce the saturation -- except use the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.

You should consult with the newspaper pre-press engineer for details, but in our experience the reds almost always need to be desaturated:

Try going to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation and then in the drop down list,
choose to edit the Reds. Drag the Saturation slider slightly to the left.

Beyond that answer, we would need more specific information of what aspect of skin you need to adjust or retouch.

(Also see our other tip on reducing mottling effect in human skin.)

From Photoshop 911 Case #04025; San JosÈ, Costa Rica

Comments

[Dan R.]

Pictures have to be CMYK for newsprint. If you are using Quark, pics must be EPS (Tiff or psd for InDesign). Ask your printer for their color settings for photoshop otherwise you will not get the same colors. Once you have your settings right, choose proof colors under the view menu so that you can see what your picture will look like when it is converted to CMYK (Always work in RGB and then convert to CMYK after you are satisfied with the look). Also, you need to calibrate your monitors (we use a spyder2 Pro). Ask your printer what settings to use for calibration. Also, keep in mind pictures will print darker than they look on your monitor. Finally, keep your fingers crossed.

[Husband]

Pictures have to be CMYK for newsprint. If you are using Quark, pics must be EPS (Tiff or psd for InDesign). Ask your printer for their color settings for photoshop otherwise you will not get the same colors. Once you have your settings right, choose proof colors under the view menu so that you can see what your picture will look like when it is converted to CMYK (Always work in RGB and then convert to CMYK after you are satisfied with the look). Also, you need to calibrate your monitors (we use a spyder2 Pro). Ask your printer what settings to use for calibration. Also, keep in mind pictures will print darker than they look on your monitor. Finally, keep your fingers crossed.

[Ovidiu Badita]

I always keep in white people skin one rule:
Yellow maximum60%
Magenta always under yellow 5-6%
Cyan or black maximum 15% of magenta unless is a picture with deep shadows.

[Colum Flanniagn]

I design for a newly created paper and we always seem to have problems when we get our paper back from our printers, We always have bad quality pictures they always seem to be way to coloured with reds and magentas, We work on a Pc (we have a mac but it is not yet set up) so we want to get a quality paper in the mean time. We were told to save all pictures as CYMK and save them as EPS then import them into our Quark software but we seem to keep getting bad pictures also they never seem to be as good Quality ..

I would be greatfull if you could help me out