Today, we're going to learn the best way to
color correct skin, all with the power of Affinity Photo. If you'd like to follow along with me, I've left a download link for the photo I'll be
using in the video description. Just by looking at this photo, we can see that it has a blue color cast. We know that we'll need to remove blue from
the photo to color correct it, but how do we know how much blue to remove? And do any other colors need to be removed? Should any colors be added? It can be really tricky to know which colors to change when doing color correction. Fortunately, the technique we'll learn in
this video allows us to do precise color correction. What we're going to do is match this woman's skin tone to a pre-made skin tone pallete. By using a skin tone pallete, we can make
sure the color of the woman's skin is correct, which will also color correct the rest of
the photo at the same time. If that doesn't make sense right now, that's okay. Just stick with me, and it will all be clear
in a minute. The first thing we need to do is a get a sample of the woman's current skin color. To do this, we'll make a selection around
a neutral part of her skin. By neutral, I mean we're not going to make
a selection of shadows or highlights in her skin, just the regular midtones of the skin. To do this, get out the Free Hand Selection Tool, and make sure your feathering is set
to 0 pixels. Then click and drag to make a selection. Then duplicate that skin onto its own layer by pressing Command or Ctrl J. Then de-select by pressing Command or Ctrl
D. Now we have a layer with a small patch of neutral skin. But even this neutral patch has color variation
inside of it. We want a single color to represent her skin
tone, so we're going to average all of the colors in this duplicate layer. To do this, come to the Filters menu, then go to Blurs, and apply an Average Blur. By averaging all of the colors on our duplicate layer, we now we have one color to represent
the average tone of all her skin. Next, we need to bring in a skin tone pallete, which will give us a variety of color corrected
skin tones. There's a lot of skin tone palletes on the
internet, because there are a lot of skin tones in real life. I'll leave a link in the video description for the one I'll be using, but feel free to
search around to find one that you like. Once you've downloaded a skin tone pallete, come up to File, and then down to Place. Then select the skin tone pallete, and click
and drag to bring it into Affinity. Now comes the trickiest part of the whole process. We need to decide which one of the colors
in the skin tone pallete best represents what this woman's skin tone should be. This can take a little practice to get right, but after some trial and error, you'll get
better and better at knowing which skin colors to use. For this example, I've already played around with a few of the skin tones, and I like the
way this color looks. The next thing we need to do is find the exact color formula for our averaged skin tone,
as well as the color from our skin tone pallete. To do this, we'll use the Info panel. You can find the Info panel by coming up to
View, down to Studio, and then select Info. The Info panel allows us to see the exact color formula that's being used to produce
any color in our photo. Right now though, the Info panel is showing us the RGB value for one color, and the CMYK
value of another color. We need both colors to be shown in the same
color space, so let's change the CMYK side to RGB. To do this, just press on this circle, and
then select RGB from the pop out menu. Now both sides are using RGB. Now we need to sample the color from the skin tone pallete, as well as our averaged skin
tone color. To sample a color, click and drag on this
cross hair icon, and place it on top of the color you want to sample. Then do the same with the other cross hair icon. Now we have the exact RGB values that are producing each one of our sampled colors. As you can see, the color from the skin tone pallete has a more red, less green, and a
lot less blue. Our goal is to make it so the average skin tone in this photo matches the skin we selected
from the pallete. To match their RGB values, we're going to
use a curves adjustment. You can apply a Curves adjustment from the adjustments icon, or you use the shortcut,
Command or Ctrl M. Then place the Curves adjustment layer so it's beneath the skin tone pallete's
layer, but above the average skin tone layer. Then we're going to change the Curves from Master, to just the Red channel. We need to increase the Reds in our photo, but we also need to make sure we move the
right part of our Curves. To do this, we'll use the Picker feature. To learn more about curves and the Picker,
you can check out our complete guide to Affinity Photo in the video description. For now though, just press on Picker, and then click and drag on the average skin tone
we created. As we do so, we'll move our Curve up, adding
more red to the exact part of the photo that we need. Try not to lift up your finger until you've perfectly matched the red value of each sampled
color. If you do accidently lift up your finger though,
that's not a problem. Just click on the node we created, and then
use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge it up or down. Perfect! We've now matched the red value for each of
our sampled colors. Now we can move on to the Green channel. Once again, press on Picker, and then click and drag on the average skin tone. This time though, we'll need to decrease the
green in our photo. Our Greens are now perfectly matched, but our photo looks worse than it did when we
started! Don't worry though, because we're not done
yet. We still need to do the Blue channel. Just as before, press on Picker, and then click and drag on the average skin tone to
bring the Blues down. Great! Now the RGB values for both our sampled colors
match perfectly. Now we can exit out of Curves, and turn off
our other layers, so we can see how the Curves adjustment is affecting the photo. And if you'd like to get rid of the cross hair icons, just press on these Arrows. Then you can exit the Info panel. Now we can turn Curves off to see our original picture, and here it is with the color-correcting-curves
applied. As you can see, this has made a huge improvement
in our photo! But don't feel like you have to stop here. All we've done is match the RGB value of a
skin tone pallete with the average skin tone in our original photo. There's no rule saying this is the "perfect
color correction". Feel free to continue modifying your Curves adjustment, to improve the photo even more. Using the skin tone pallete is simply meant
to give you a good starting point. For example, I think I'll double click on the Curves adjustment to bring it back up,
and then increase the Master curve, to brighten the photo a little bit. I'd say this photo has now been successfully color corrected! I know this technique might seem a little tricky right now, but really, it's easy to
do once you get the hang of it. Let's quickly do one more example together,
so you can review how this technique works. I've left a download link in the video description for the 2nd image we'll be working on. If you'd like, you can pause the video here
and try color correcting the image on your own. Or if you're still feeling a little overwhelmed,
just keep watching, and I'll walk you through the process. First, we need to sample a neutral part of her skin, using the Free Hand Selection Tool. Then duplicate the selection onto its own layer by pressing Command or Ctrl J. Then
press Command or Ctrl D to de-select. Now we'll average the skin tones in our duplicate layer by applying an Average Blur. Then we'll bring in our skin tone pallete. Now choose the skin tone that you think best matches what the woman's actual skin color
is. I'm going to use the 5th sample from the bottom,
on the far left side. Now we'll bring out the Info panel, so we can get the RGB values of the skin tone pallete,
and our averaged skin color. Remember to set both sides of the Info panel to RGB. Then place the cross hairs on each of the colors we want to sample. Now make a Curves adjustment layer, and place it underneath the skin tone pallete layer. Now we'll come to the Red channel, and use the Picker to match the red value of each
sampled color. Then we can move on to the Green and Blue channels. Now we can turn everything off, to see how our photo is looking. Once again, I think I'm going to brighten
the picture a little bit. Now we can turn off the Curves adjustment to see the original photo… And here it is with our color correction applied. As you can see, this technique works incredibly
well, even for photos that need serious color correction. As a final tip for you, you may encounter times when you need to crush the Curve's spline
in order to match the RGB values in the Info panel. My recommendation is to never do this. It can often make the coloring in your photo
worse. Instead, use the arrow keys to nudge the node up until the spline is just barely above the
bottom. Matching RGB values isn't worth crushing the
spline. Thanks for watching my friends, and I'll see you in the next Affinity Revolution tutorial!
