Caucasian skin tone CMYK recipe

I’ve been loving the my Lynda.com color training program. Here’s my notes from the 3rd chapter. I am applying the knowledge to a picture I took of Micah and his Aunt Adonika when she was in town for a couple of days. The trainer gave a a nice little starting recipe for Caucasian skin tone using CMYK.

Here’s there rule:

1. M and Y should be the same, with a little higher percentage of yellow
2. C is 1/5 to 1/3 the amount of the Y and M numbers
3. There should be 0 K (Black)

 

Here’s the picture I was talking about. While this picture looks pretty nice, the Magenta and yellow is a bit lacking. Because these colors are low this gives the skin a much cooler and less natural feel. Here’s the picture and it’s readings.

Using the curve panel you will need to increase the Magenta and Yellow. You will also need to decrease the Cyan. Open the curves box. Right now the C/M ratio is about 42% which is out of the 20%->30% ratio I talked about earlier.

Here’s the green channel after editing:

Here’s the blue channel after editing

Here’s the red channel after editing:

By doing this we have now created a much more natural skin tone color on Micah’s face!

Now let’s do the math:

1. The Cyan is 10%. That is approx. 1/3 the value of the Magenta and Yellow.
2. Yellow and Magenta are basically the same.
3. Yellow is a tiny bit higher then the Magenta.
4. There is no black in the skin.

 

Here’s another example with just a before and after:

 

In my next article I will go over how to make sure someone with a darker skin tone has accurate colors in a picture.