How to Get a Tan in Photoshop

Adding a believable tan comes down to coloring highlights and shadows separately, since each needs a different blend mode and a different Blend If restriction to look natural. This tutorial covers building a highlight color layer with Color Burn, a shadow color layer with Multiply, restricting each to the correct tonal range, and finishing with a Selective Color adjustment to fine-tune the exact skin tone.

Coloring the Highlights With a Color Burn Layer

A Solid Color adjustment layer set to Color Burn burns a light, desaturated orange into the image, forming the base of the tan before it gets restricted to just the highlights.

1. Add a Solid Color Adjustment Layer

   Add a Solid Color adjustment layer and choose a relatively bright, not overly saturated orange.

2. Change the Blend Mode to Color Burn

   Change the layer’s blend mode from Normal to Color Burn to burn the orange color into the image.

Restricting the Highlight Color to Just the Highlights

Splitting the Blend If shadow slider and dragging it right removes the Color Burn layer’s effect from the shadows, since Color Burn otherwise darkens and oversaturates them unnaturally.

3. Open Blending Options

   Double-click the Solid Color layer, or go to FX > Blending Options, to open its layer style.

4. Split and Drag the Shadow Slider Right

   Hold Alt/Option and click the left black slider under Blend If, then drag it to the right until the layer disappears from the shadows.

Why Color Burn Needs to Be Restricted to Highlights Only

Color Burn darkens the underlying colors as it applies, which looks fine in the highlights but turns the shadows too dark and oversaturated once the same orange is burned into them. Restricting the layer to highlights with Blend If keeps the effect exactly where it works, adding warm color to the brighter skin tones without dragging the shadows into an unnatural, muddy color.

Fine-Tuning the Highlight Color and Its Range

Double-clicking the color swatch to adjust hue and saturation, alongside further tweaking the Blend If slider, dials in a highlight tone that looks natural rather than artificial.

5. Adjust the Highlight Color’s Hue

   Double-click the color swatch and shift the hue until the tan color lands in the right range instead of looking too orange or too red.

6. Narrow the Blend If Range Further if Needed

   Return to Blending Options and drag the shadow slider further right if the color is still affecting too much of the shadow area.

Coloring the Shadows With a Multiply Layer

A second Solid Color layer, this time set to Multiply, adds warmth into the shadows to complete the tan on both ends of the tonal range.

7. Add Another Solid Color Adjustment Layer

   Add a second Solid Color adjustment layer and choose a similar orange for the shadows.

8. Change the Blend Mode to Multiply

   Change this layer’s blend mode from Normal to Multiply, which is appropriate for darkening and coloring shadow areas.

Restricting the Shadow Color to Just the Shadows

Splitting the Blend If highlight slider and dragging it left this time removes the Multiply layer’s effect from the highlights and background, keeping it isolated to the shadow areas.

9. Open Blending Options for the Multiply Layer

   Double-click the second Solid Color layer to open its layer style.

10. Split and Drag the Highlight Slider Left

    Hold Alt/Option and click the right white slider under Blend If, then drag it to the left until the layer disappears from the highlights and any bright background.

11. Fine-Tune the Shadow Color

    Double-click the color swatch and adjust hue and saturation, staying within a moderate, natural orange range rather than pushing too far toward heavy saturation.

Why the Two Blend If Sliders Move in Opposite Directions

The highlight layer needs its shadow-side slider dragged from left to right to remove the effect from the darks, while the shadow layer needs its highlight-side slider dragged from right to left to remove the effect from the lights. Moving each slider in the direction that excludes the tonal range it shouldn’t affect is what keeps the two color layers working on separate halves of the image instead of overlapping and doubling up in the midtones.

Why Selective Color Succeeds Where the Solid Color Layers Leave Off

The two solid color layers apply a broad orange tint across large tonal ranges, which gets the overall tan close but can leave skin looking slightly flat or artificial. Selective Color instead works within the skin’s own existing red tones, adjusting cyan, magenta, and yellow specifically inside that range, which is what lets the final color feel like a natural variation of the skin rather than a color cast sitting on top of it.

Refining the Overall Skin Tone With Selective Color

A Selective Color adjustment layer targeted at reds fine-tunes the cyan, magenta, and yellow balance within the skin tone itself, correcting the slightly artificial look the two color layers alone can leave behind.

12. Add a Selective Color Adjustment Layer

    Add a Selective Color adjustment layer above the two solid color layers.

13. Target the Reds

    Set the color range to Reds, since that’s the range most relevant to skin tone.

14. Adjust Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow

    Raise Cyan slightly to balance excess red, adjust Magenta up if the skin looks too green, and lower Yellow slightly, tuning each until the tone looks natural.

Balancing the Three Layers Together

Reviewing all three adjustment layers together, and adjusting opacity or reopening individual color swatches, brings the whole effect into balance rather than leaving each layer tuned in isolation.

15. Zoom Out to Judge the Overall Effect

    Zoom out to see the skin tone from a normal viewing distance, since some color issues are easier to spot at that scale.

16. Adjust Opacity or Saturation as Needed

    Lower a layer’s opacity or reopen its color swatch to reduce saturation if the combined effect looks slightly too strong.

Why This Approach Works

Coloring highlights and shadows on two separate layers, each with its own blend mode and Blend If range, is what allows each half of the tonal range to get the specific treatment it actually needs, since Color Burn and Multiply behave very differently. Moving the two Blend If sliders in opposite directions is what keeps each layer confined to its intended half of the image instead of both piling up in the midtones. Finishing with Selective Color targeted at reds is what corrects the remaining slightly artificial quality left over after the two solid color layers, since it fine-tunes the actual skin tone rather than a broad color overlay.

Final Thoughts

Treating highlights and shadows as two separate problems, rather than one flat color overlay, is what makes this tan look believable instead of like an obvious orange filter. The same three-layer approach, highlight color, shadow color, and Selective Color refinement, works on any subject who needs a more sun-kissed skin tone.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Highlight tanAdjustment layer > Solid Color, light orange; blend mode Color Burn
• Keep it off the shadowsFX > Blending Options > Blend If; Alt/Option-drag the black slider from the left to the right
• Shadow tanSecond Solid Color layer, similar orange; blend mode Multiply
• Keep it off the highlightsDouble-click the layer; Alt/Option-drag the white Blend If slider from the right to the left
• Refine the skinAdjustment layer > Selective Color, Colors: Reds; Cyan up, Magenta up slightly, Yellow down slightly
• BalanceZoom out; lower a layer’s opacity or double-click its swatch to desaturate

No AI, no generative credits.