We recognize that this is wide-ranging and nuanced topic, and as a result can't include all that can be said in one article. But here are the most important ideas and takeaways to keep in mind!
What are Skin Undertones?
If you're familiar with makeup, you may have heard of 'undertones'. Everyone has a different skin undertone! Try to think of skin undertones in terms of warm, neutral, and cool. You'll want to process your images differently, depending on your subjects' skin undertones. For example, using a warm filter/preset on someone with cool undertones may not provide the most complementary or accurate result, and vice versa.
How Do I Edit My Images for Different Skin Undertones?
White Balance - Think of white balance as the temperature of your image. If the white balance is skewed too warm or too cool, it can result in unnatural color casts on the skin tones.
Brightness - Brightness also impacts the accuracy of the skin tones in your images. If the image is too bright (overexposed) or too dark (underexposed), the saturation of your image will be impacted, which can lead to inaccurate skin tones.
Saturation - If skin tones look too dull and washed out, your image may be under-saturated. On the flip side, if skin tones are unnaturally colored, over-saturation may be the culprit.
Contrast - Contrast is another setting to watch out for while editing! If the contrast is too low, important details can be lost and the image may look flat. If the contrast is too high, the textures and colors in the image can appear harsh, dramatic, and unnatural due to an emphasis of the shadows and highlights.
Should I Use Filters or Presets When Editing?
We generally recommend staying away from using filters or presets, mainly because they do not work well across the board for ALL skin undertones! If images need to be edited, we recommend simply making adjustments to White Balance, Brightness, and Saturation. What works for one skin tone may not for another.
Remember, when it comes to editing: maintaining the quality and integrity of the skin tones in a flattering and accurate way is the main goal, like we mentioned previously in our Photo Editing Recommendations article!
Can Different Devices and Screens Impact the Color of an Image?
Please note that different devices will display skin tones and overall image colors in a variety of ways. As photographers, we can't control every scenario or screen in which the images are viewed on. It's important to make the effort and pay attention to these details, but at the end of the day, just do the best you can to maintain the integrity of your subjects' skin tones!