This tutorial is an extraction from the Simply Photoshop Elements 9 book by Mike Wooldridge. Visit Wiley Press for more information.

You can improve skin colours that may appear tinted or washed out in your images. After you sample an area of skin with the eyedropper, Photoshop Elements adjusts the skin colour to make it look more natural. Photoshop Elements also adjusts other colours in the image based on the sampled skin.

You can fine-tune the adjustment to increase or decrease the tan or blush in the skin tones as well as the overall temperature of the image. To adjust all the colours in your image, not just the skin tones, see the other sections in this chapter.

1. Enhance

In the Editor, click Enhance. (For more on opening the Editor, see Chapter 1 of Simply Photoshop Elements 9.)

2. Adjust colour

Click Adjust Colour.
 

3. Skin Tone

Click Adjust Colour for Skin Tone and the Adjust Colour for Skin Tone dialogue box opens. The mouse pointer changes to an eyedropper.

4. Click on your subject's skin

Click an area of skin in your image. Photoshop Elements adjusts the skin tones and other colours in your image.

5. Apply tan

Click and drag the Tan slider to adjust the level of brown in the skin tones.

6. Add blush

Click and drag the Blush slider to adjust the level of red in the skin tones.

7. Adjust colouring

Click and drag the Temperature slider to adjust the overall colouring of the skin tones.

8. Finish

Click OK. Photoshop Elements makes adjustments to the skin in the image.

How to correct the colours in an image:

1. Click the layer you want to adjust.
2. Click Enhance.
3. Click Auto Colour Correction. Photoshop Elements adjusts the image colours. You can press Ctrl + Z to undo the effect.