How can I blend Skin tones (when superimposing head onto other body)?

[Frank Sebem]

Hi all

 

I am familiar with the program and have no problem using layers to cut and paste parts of an image into another image.  So, this morning I am fooling around and superimposing my head onto the body of Arnold Schwartzenneger.  All went well until I hit the same problem that I always do...The colour of my skin tone is different from that of Arnie's.  I tried using auto level which does well but it's just not right.  Is there a tool or plugin where I can match the colour of both our Skin?

 

Thanks all

[Eli]

Go outside and get a sun tan. Take a photo and try again. You may need to repeat  the process several times as Arnold lives in California and has plenty of sun. Do not forget to put on a sun tanning lotion. Sunburns can hurt you so protect your skin. 

[Darty]

Another thing you can try is using different tools to change your skin color (Coloreffects/Brightness/Contrast) close to the color you need and then blend your head on the body using the gradient tool.
Getting the perfect color is quite hard and the main problem is the line you'll see on the connection-border.
 

Take some extra neck-space on either of the images (as a part needs to fade).
Select the build-in gradient tool, setting colormode to transparencymode.

Then, just above or below the connection, draw a short line in a vertical way towards the connection and notice what happens.
After that, slide the pointers to your need. The longer the line, the longer the fade. The closer to the connection, the stronger the fade.

I use this too when I need to connect some bodyparts, usually the same person on different images from different angles, where lighting isn't the same.
This works for me. You could give it a try and see if this works out well enough for your needs.

[Eli]

As Darty said, lightning is very important. Look at Arnolds photo ant try to match the pose as well as the lightning conditions. Do not forget the angle of the camera.

[Frank Sebem]

Thanks all for the advice.  With regard to the advice of Eli, I have decided to accept your suggestions.  However, it is cold, dull, dark & damp here in the UK.  Therefore, would you mind paying for a Holiday to California for me?

 

Thanks mate.

[Eli]

Same here, weather is not good. And the US is too far and too expensive to fly to California. Will wait  for saturday, good weather is announced for the island of Wight in one week. I might make it if I do not get stuck at the port of entry as my passport has expired. 

 

By the way, welcome to the forums!

Edited July 11, 2016 by Eli

[Ishi]

That's easy. I often use the Curves+ plugin there to adjust the luminosity to the suit the skin tone. 

[MJW]

The "get a suntan idea" is silly. I suggest you hit the gym, and build a body like Arnold's at his prime. That would eliminate the need to superimpose your face on his body.
 
If that's not practical, then besides Darty's very useful blending suggestion and the contrast adjustments, you might try BoltBait's Hue / Saturation+. There are number of other recolor plugins that might also be useful, along with the built-in Recolor Tool.

 

As others have said, you need the lighting to be similar or the result will never look right. If the lighting is from opposite directions, you might try flopping the image of Arnold.