Scarlett Johansson B/W to color tweak

[DaveD]

I can't seem to get the skin color right. It always turns out like that instead of "white"

 

[inkpad.t]

Who says it has to be white ?, it looks like you have color over the black and white image, see nothing wrong with that really... but i do find the eyes a bit to light and bright, and the lips stick very bright, it seems to detract the eye to those 2 areas. if you want to lighten or darken areas do some dodging and burning, each on its own layer so you can do adjustments to them.

 

[Tom Mann]

What you did is very good, but to improve it even further (i.e., make it look a bit more life-like, and less like a wax figure with makeup applied), I would suggest that you vary the saturation and hue from area to area on her face. For example, the shadow areas are usually considerably more saturated than the highlight areas, the cheeks usually a bit more red than the rest of the face, either because of a natural blush, or because the woman applied rouge or other makeup in that area, etc. etc.

The luminance contrast in the B&W starting is also much flatter than one would see in most typical photos. There are several reasons for this, including, (a) the lighting is rarely that well controlled; and, (b) the skin of real people have areas that are much more reflective than other areas (eg, due to slightly oily skin, etc.). If there is absolutely no trace of shiny oily areas, it takes away from the credibility of the image.

HTH,

Tom M