Red Blotches with Digital Images: A quick Fix

A common problem with digital capture on skin tones is the tendency to render unpleasing red blotches on the image. This exaggeration of reds is due to the Bayer-pattern system used on the camera's sensor to interpret color data. There are many ways to remedy this problem with Photoshop color adjustment tools, however, the Hue/Sat tool is by far the most efficient in correcting the sensor's shortcomings.




There are different ways to approach this: Take the image below the patches of red surrounding the face. The object is to create even tone throughout. Create a Hue/Sat adjustment layer (think non-destructive editing) in the layers palette and choose Magentas in the Edit drop-down menu. Move the Hue slider to the right between 20-30. I always split the difference and use +25 for better transition. The last step is to click the cursor in the dark-shaded portion (center) of the color bar slider at the bottom of the dialog box, then move to the right toward the reds and yellows until the red blotches disappear. It's that simple!







The last step if tones were lost in the lips, would be to choose the paintbrush between hard and soft and paint over the lips in full opacity to reveal the underlying layer that contained the red tone on the lips. Make sure the the adjustment layer is highlighted the layers palette when brushing over the affected area.



Since we don't live in a perfect world, I was compelled to create an unbalanced rendering in sardonic nature after creating even skin tones for my friend. Maybe he should use this as a profile pic for Facebook.