How To Make People Look Tanned In Photoshop

To make someone look tanned in Photoshop, select their skin, then add a Curves or Solid Color adjustment layer that darkens the skin slightly and warms it toward orange-brown, limited to the skin with a mask. Keep the effect subtle, protect the highlights, and leave eyes, teeth, lips and hair untouched. The whole job takes about ten minutes and stays fully editable.

Step 1: Select the Skin

Every method below depends on a good skin mask, so make it first.

1. Choose Select > Color Range and set Select to Skin Tones. Tick Detect Faces if the photo is a portrait. Adjust Fuzziness until the skin shows white in the preview and the background and clothing show black.
2. Click OK, then choose Select > Select and Mask. Add a little Feather (1 to 3 pixels) so the edge of the tan blends, and use the Refine Edge Brush along hairlines.
3. Output the selection as a selection. You will turn it into a mask in the next step.

If Color Range picks up wooden furniture, sand or warm clothing, start from Select > Subject instead, or paint the mask by hand later. Skin, wood and sand often share the same hues.

Step 2: Darken and Warm the Skin

With the selection active, add an adjustment layer. Photoshop turns the selection into the layer’s mask automatically, so the change applies only to the skin. Use one of these methods.

Method A: Curves (most control)

1. Add a Curves adjustment layer.
2. On the RGB curve, pull the middle of the line down slightly to darken the midtones. Leave the top of the curve almost where it is so highlights on the forehead, nose and cheekbones stay bright.
3. Switch to the Blue channel and pull the middle down a little. Less blue means more yellow.
4. Switch to the Red channel and lift the middle very slightly for warmth. Check the Green channel last: lowering it a touch adds magenta if the skin looks too yellow or olive.

Small moves are enough. A curve that looks barely changed in the dialog box can make a clear difference to skin. See curves and levels if the tool is new.

Method B: Solid Color Fill (fastest)

1. Add a Solid Color fill layer and pick a medium warm brown, something like the color of milky coffee or caramel.
2. Set the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light. Try Overlay for a stronger, more contrasty tan, or Multiply for a darker one.
3. Lower the opacity to between 20 and 50 percent, judging by eye.

Because the color lives in the fill layer, you can double-click its thumbnail at any time to try a redder or more golden tan.

Method C: Color Balance and Levels

Add a Color Balance adjustment layer, choose Midtones, and move the sliders toward Red and Yellow. Then add a Levels layer clipped to it (Alt/Option-click between the layers) and move the middle slider right to darken the midtones. This is easy to understand but harder to keep natural than Curves.

Step 3: Protect Highlights and Features

A real tan darkens skin, but the shine on a cheekbone or forehead stays bright. To keep it, double-click the empty area to the right of the adjustment layer’s name to open Layer Style, find Blend If, and drag the white slider of Underlying Layer to the left. Alt/Option-drag to split the slider so the transition is smooth. The brightest parts of the skin now keep their highlights.

Then select the layer mask and paint with a soft black brush over the eyes, teeth, lips, eyebrows and any hair the selection caught. Tanned skin around white eyes and teeth looks natural; tanned eyes and teeth do not. Painting with gray at the edges of the face gives a softer transition into the hairline.

Step 4: Make It Look Natural

• Tan all the visible skin. Face, ears, neck, chest, arms and hands need to match. A tanned face above pale hands is the giveaway in most fake tans. Check that the mask covers them all.
• Keep natural variation. Real tans are uneven: deeper on the nose, shoulders and forearms, lighter on the inner arms. Paint the mask with gray at low opacity to reduce the effect where the sun would reach less.
• Add a little shape. Tanned skin often looks slightly more contrasty. A gentle dodge and burn on the cheekbones and collarbones adds dimension.
• Match the light in the scene. A deep golden tan in a cool, blue-toned photo looks pasted on. Correct the white balance of the whole image first, then tan the skin.
• Compare often. Toggle the adjustment layer on and off. Lower its opacity until the change is clear with the layer on but the skin still looks believable.

Common Mistakes

• Going orange. Too much red and yellow, or too much saturation, gives the look of a bad spray tan. Pull back the warmth or lower the opacity.
• Muddy, gray skin. Darkening without adding warmth makes skin look dirty or ill. Darken and warm together.
• Flattened highlights. Darkening every tone evenly removes the shine that shows the shape of the face. Use Blend If or keep the top of the curve in place.
• Tanned clothing and background. A loose selection tans a beige shirt or a wooden wall too. Check the mask by Alt/Option-clicking its thumbnail to view it in black and white.
• Working destructively. Image > Adjustments changes pixels for good. Use adjustment layers and masks so you can change your mind.

Changing someone’s skin tone changes how they look, so check with the person before publishing an edit like this.

Try This

Open a portrait in soft, even light. Make a skin mask once, then apply it to three separate adjustment layers, one for each method above, and switch between them. Aim for the same depth of tan with each. Notice which method keeps the highlights best and which gives the most natural color on that particular skin tone. Different skin often suits a different method.

Questions People Ask

What color should I use for a fake tan in Photoshop? A medium, slightly desaturated warm brown works on most skin, used in Soft Light at low opacity. Redder browns suit fair skin that would tan with some redness; more golden browns suit olive skin. Sample a real tanned area of the same person if the photo has one.

Which blend mode is best for tanning skin? Soft Light is the most natural starting point because it darkens and warms without crushing the shadows or highlights. Overlay is stronger, Multiply darkens the most, and Color changes hue without changing brightness.

Can I tan skin in Lightroom? Yes, roughly. Use a masked adjustment on the people in the photo, lower Exposure a little, move Temperature warmer and adjust Tint to taste. Photoshop gives more control over highlights and features.

How do I keep the tan from looking fake? Keep it subtle, protect the highlights, leave eyes and teeth untouched, match every visible area of skin, and keep the natural variation of a real tan.

More skin work: photo retouching covers the wider process, and color grading explains how to give a whole image a warm, sunny look.