Darken the Skin on Photos

[Timmy G]

Hey guys,

I'm not completely new to Paint.net but I got a simple question:

Is there a possibility to make the skin of a person appear darker?

Thanks and greets

[ncfan51]

There are many ways. The easiest is to use this tutorial to select the skin and use Curves (Adjustments>Curves) to darken it. Tell me if you want screenshots.

[Timmy G]

Hey,

thanks for your post. I know how to cut out Images and I selected one part in order to test if it works. When selected, I chose Brightness/Contrast (hope that it's the right translation) and put Brightness -100. But this setting had no effect on the picture. Could you tell me what curves I have to change? RGB?

Thanks

[david.atwell]

If it had no effect on the picture, you probably had the wrong layer selected. Make sure you choose the layer with the skin you want to darken on it.

Hope this helps. :-)

[Timmy G]

Hey,

now I found out how it works. You were right David, thanks. But the problem is, that I don't want to cut out the skin - I just want to make it apppear darker. When I just select the Skin it doesn't change its color, but when I cut it out I have to put it into the picure again later. Is there a possibility to change the skin color without cutting it out?

thanks

[david.atwell]

Sure. Just use the Curves adjustment. You'll want to change it to RGB mode, and then uncheck Blue and Green; drag the curve for Red up, then uncheck Red and check Green; drag it slightly below Red, then uncheck Green and check Blue; drag it slightly down.

The exact points will change depending on the existing skin color, the lighting in the photo, how dark you want the skin, etc.

You should know, though: this will effect the entire image. If you want to just affect the face, you'll need to cut it out or take a look at the "Condititional Hue/Saturation" plugin.

Hope this helps. :-)

[Timmy G]

Allright, thanks for the answers I'll try it out.

[ncfan51]

You have to cut it out and paste it on a new layer, basically. Then use Curves.

[Timmy G]

All right guys, it worked. Thanks for your answers!

greets

[david.atwell]

Good to hear, glad to help. :-)