Desaturating Skin

This is an incredibly popular effect in portraits these days. You’re essentially going to remove some of the color from your subject’s skin, so it doesn’t look so warm, and you get this really trendy desaturated look.

In Lightroom: In the Develop module, choose the Adjustment Brush (K) from the toolbox near the top of the right side Panels area, and then double-click on the word “Effect” in the panel of adjustments that appears to reset all the sliders to zero. Now, decrease the Saturation amount to around –28 and paint over any visible skin areas to desaturate them. Another method you can try doesn’t use the brush at all: go to the HSL/Color panel, click on the Saturation tab at the top, then drag the Red and Orange sliders to the left to desaturate the skin tones.

In Photoshop: Open the image in Camera Raw (or go under the Filter menu and choose Camera Raw Filter) and choose the Adjustment Brush (K) from the toolbar at the top of the window. In the panel of adjustments on the right, click on the – (minus sign) button to the left of Saturation, which resets all the sliders to zero and decreases the Saturation amount to –25. Now, lower the Saturation amount to around –28 and paint over any visible skin areas to desaturate them (as seen above). Another method is to go to the HSL Adjustments panel (it’s the fourth icon from the left at the top of the Panel area), click on the Saturation tab at the top, then drag the Reds and Oranges sliders to the left to desaturate the skin tones.