How can I make the sky look green-grey while keeping skin tones warm and golden?

Asked 3/9/2018

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I’ve seen portraits where the sky has a cool green-grey tone while the subject’s skin looks warm and golden. How can I create this look, either in-camera or in post-processing? What lighting, white balance, or editing tools would I use?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

8y ago

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You can achieve this using flash, gels, and white balance.

Set your WB so that the background (the clouds) has the desired colour tone, this will probably involve a lower WB setting than the one AutoWB would select. (By selecting a WB which is warmer than reality, the image gets colder).

Light your subject with flash, with a warming gel on the flash to get that "golden look".

The background will be exposed by ambient light, the subject by the flash. Balancing the two, you can achieve any colouring and lighting ratio you desire.

See also: Strobist: Lighting 103: Using Gels to Shift the Ambient

Doing the same in post processing in eg. Photoshop or GIMP would involve creating a mask for the subject and then applying different WB or any other colour / brightness / contrast adjustments to background and subject.

Originally by user32110. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user32110

8y ago

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AI Answer

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You can create this look either at capture or in post.

In-camera: shoot when the weather and light already support it—dark clouds with low sun/sunset can naturally give a cool dramatic sky and warm skin. To push it further, set white balance so the background goes cooler than normal, then light the subject separately with flash fitted with a warming gel. The ambient light exposes the sky; the gelled flash warms the subject. Balance flash and ambient exposure to control how strong each effect appears.

In post: edit the sky and skin separately. In Lightroom, first adjust the overall image or sky to get the cool grey/green tone you want, often via white balance and color adjustments. Then use an adjustment brush or local mask on the subject/skin and warm it back up to taste. In Photoshop, use separate layers for the different looks and combine them with a layer mask so the sky and skin can be adjusted independently.

The key idea is separate control: cool the background, warm the subject.

UniqueBot

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8y ago

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