Purple hands

[Justinr]

A problem that has me totally flummoxed. Why do some hands look fine in daylight but show up purple when photographed, especially with flash, and what if anything can be done about it?

[Rob C]

A problem that has me totally flummoxed. Why do some hands look fine in daylight but show up purple when photographed, especially with flash, and what if anything can be done about it?

Exterminate the aliens. That's where they give themselves away - no need for oils, filters and special lights.

Rob C

[Justinr]

Teenagers are indeed another species but not all have this as an identifying feature - 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... what if anything can be done about it?

Switch to b&w?

On a more serious note, try desaturating reds and changing their hue so that reds are a bit more yellow than magenta.

[Justinr]

Many thanks for the tips gentlemen. I had tried washing some colour in at 10% opacity and flow using various colour references from the arm which helped to a certain degree but it also blanked out the texture making the skin look very flat. I hope to have a go at some of the other suggestions but as always when, in a quiet moment I ask a question upon this site it is guaranteed to suddenly go mad with other bits of life intruding which is the reason for my rather rude delay in acknowledgement. My apologies.

Justin.

[Dustbak]

Try to have your model raise his/her hands above their head right before starting to shoot. This way blood in the hands will be less and often the reddish/purplish will be diminished.

[stamper]

Amputation might be the only solution. The only problem is if you replace them with hooks you might get some overexposure. Seriously the previous posters have given you good advice.

[Justinr]

Try to have your model raise his/her hands above their head right before starting to shoot. This way blood in the hands will be less and often the reddish/purplish will be diminished.

Now there is a darn good idea. One of those that is so simple you kick yourself for not thinking of it!

Amputation might be the only solution. Smiley The only problem is if you replace them with hooks you might get some overexposure. Seriously the previous posters have given you good advice. Wink

It's not just hands though, I covered this charity fashion show as a favour where the lighting was not only mixed but constantly being adjusted so the mix changed dramatically throughout the evening. The poor kids with fair skins and now just emerging from a sunless winter didn't stand a chance when it came to skin tones - GAA Fashion show

[AndreNapier]

The problem is a combination of thinner and dryer skin, blood distribution, water retention and generally lighter skin tone. It is a bit like flashing light through a hand. We try to overcome it by applying tinted lotion to model hands or foundation identical to make-up used. Raising hands also works good especially for older models. There is nothing more distracting than female model with great facial make-up and pale hands and legs. If full body make-up is not practical than using additional gridded soft spot light for face only helps equalize the color differences.
Correction in PS is difficult and very time consuming for this problem so it is easier to pay attention to it prior to shot. Overall it is a very common problem.

http://HeadshotPhotographyChicago.com

[Justinr]

Andre

Your point about the make up needing to be similar over the all parts that are to be photographed is another one of those ideas that I'm kicking myself for not thinking of! Not really practical on the fashion show photos but the thinner skinned youngsters certainly show the stronger purple tones.

A point that I'd like to make is how stunning the photography on your site is. Love the inspirational lighting.

[Tim Lookingbill]

Was curious if anyone found different varieties of lights, type or brand, that renders this kind of skin better over others.

IOW are there brands of flash or strobes or fluorescent lights that are tuned by the manufacturer to render better skin tones? I've tried to find a comparison test sight online for this but couldn't find anything.

Could tweaking the WB to a warmer setting help improve pinky Caucasian hues as well as rosacea looking discoloration?

Also I've noticed shooting Raw some lights will shift the red>orange>yellow skin hue spectrum in a way that restricts ACR/LR HSL edits of these hues to a narrow range of red and maybe some orange. The pinky hand that was posted above would look like the magenta/purple HSL sliders should fix it but it doesn't. 

I mean the title of this topic verifies what hue it appears to be. I also find with my DSLR a DNG profile amplifies this red appearance. Wonder if the IR filter on digital sensors has something to do with this as well.

[GeraldD]

Can't help with avoiding the problem, but by converting to CMYK (most portraits won't suffer too much) will allow Selective Colour to differentiate between red and magenta. Increase yellow in magenta to balance. This also works for older peoples faces with purple veins and 'whiskey nose'. Be careful of colour of lips.
Use a litho sheetfed cmyk for a reasonable range. eg.US Sheetfed Coated v2 or FOGRA27.
This is not a very sophisticated solution but can give a quick fix if there are no wider gamut colours.

Gerald

[DikSouan]

If you put a purple gel on your flash, or use a purple filter on camera, when you correct the white balance, the hands will more closely match the face.
Works for purple zits, too.
It's similar to the use of color filters in B&W photography. Things the color of the filter are rendered lighter.