There are times when a good tan is desirable for your photos. Maybe you’d like your own pictures of yourself to look like you’ve been away on a sunny holiday. Or maybe the lighting conditions made you and your friends look washed out, and some color corrections are in order.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you some ways that you may create a tan in Photoshop. Let’s get started!
1. How to Create a Tan Using Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom Classic
Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic are virtually identical in the way the editing panels and tools are presented. With their full array of selection tools, it’s possible to select just the skin of your subjects and create a targeted tan effect. This method works for either app.
It’s always a good idea to keep layer management in mind. If you save the layer to Photoshop as a Smart Object, that means you can go back and make further adjustments with the sliders (in both Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic). If you save it as a rasterized layer in Photoshop, you can just reduce theOpacityof the layer.
Create a Mask for the Subject’s Skin
There are other ways to create tans in Photoshop and this involves the additional steps of making selections of the subject’s skin. Once the selection is converted to a layer mask, the mask can be used for any of the additional ways to create tans. For most selections, you could probably get away with using theQuick SelectionandLassotools.
After making your selection, right-click within it and chooseSave Selection.
Name the selection and clickOK. Then press theDkey to deselect. The selection will be saved and can be accessed in theChannelstab for any masks that you’d need.
Now, we’re ready to take a look at all the ways to create a tan in Photoshop using adjustment layers.
2. Channel Mixer
For each of the following methods, we’ll return to the Channels tab and pressCtrl+left-clickon the selection to activate the selection.
Return to theLayerstab, go to theAdjustmentsicon at the bottom-right of the screen in Photoshop, and chooseChannel Mixer.
Adjust the sliders in theRed,Green, andBluechannels to create a tan effect.
Any of these adjustments can have their effects reduced by lowering theOpacity.
3. Photo Filters
Photo Filters are pretty simplistic, but they can be very effective if you just need a quick bit of coloring to emulate a tan. The defaultWarming Filter (85)does a great job. We reduced theOpacityto 50% for these results.
Once you use the initial selection as a mask, you may easily copy the mask to each adjustment so that only the skin is affected. All you do isAlt+clickon the mask, drag it to the new adjustment layer, choose to replace the existing mask, and clickOK.
4. Hue/Saturation
Hue/Saturation is a great choice for adding a tan to your subject, especially if your subject already has a bit of a tan because then it’s only a matter of increasing the saturation.
In this example, we increased theSaturationin theMasterchannel and also in theRedandYellowchannels.
5. Color Balance
Color Balance has a lot more options for creating a tan. You can adjust theShadows,Midtones, andHighlightsto get the perfect results.
You can also combine any of these adjustments withBlend Ifto color grade your images.
6. Vibrance
Vibrance is another simple way to create a tan for your subject with only two sliders;SaturationandVibrance. But it’s an effective and quick method.
7. Solid Color
Solid Color requires a few steps, but it’s a great choice if you want to choose the exact color to closely match multiple skin colors on the subject in an image
First, choose a color in theColor Pickermenu. Then apply the mask to the adjustment layer.
Change the Blend Mode toColor Burn. We show youhow to use the Blend Modes in Photoshopif you need a refresher.
Reduce theOpacityfor a more natural-looking tan. In this example, we reduced it to 25%.
Whenusing the Curves tool in Photoshop, you’ll want to adjust theRedandBluechannels to increase the saturation of the reds and yellows, respectively.
9. Gradient Map
Gradient Map is similar to Color Fill in that you have to choose a color, in this case, a gradient.
Then change the Blend Mode toColor Burn.
Reduce theOpacity; we changed it to 28%.
Another great result with quick adjustments.
10. Selective Color
Selective Color can be daunting because there are so many sliders; but with so many options comes more control over the coloring. With a little experimentation, you can create a great tan effect for your subject.
There Are Many Ways to Create the Perfect Tan in Photoshop
you’re able to use Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom Classic to create a tan effect. You can also create a mask and use several adjustment layers to emulate a tan on your subject; the ones we covered all have their strengths for making simple or complex color corrections. Try these methods on your own photos to see which ones work best for you.
