How to Change Skin Color in Paint.Net
By Jason Artman
When you upload photos of yourself to share online with your friends, you might decide that you would like to correct a few blemishes first. Blemishes such as acne tend to be a different color than the rest of the face, which means that they can be easily fixed using a tool that replaces one color with another. You can replace skin tones with the colors of your choice in the free utility Paint.NET, allowing you to correct blemishes or change your skin color in any way you please.
Launch Paint.NET (see Resources) and open the image that you would like to change skin colors in.
Click the "Recolor Tool" icon, which is located below the eyedropper-shaped icon on the left side of the window. Alternatively, press the "R" key on the keyboard to select the tool.
Hold the "Ctrl" key, and then click an area of the "Colors" tool that represents the color you would like to replace skin tones with. If you do not see the "Colors" tool, press the "F8" key to open it.
Click the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the "Colors" tool. Select "Secondary."
Hold the "Ctrl" key, and then click an area on the photo to select the color that you want to replace.
Click the "Brush Width" drop-down menu at the top of the menu. Select an appropriate size for the recolor brush, in pixels, for the size of the image that you are modifying.
Click and hold the mouse button while dragging the "Recolor" brush over the image. All instances of the color that you selected on the image will be replaced with the color that you selected using the color tool.
Tips
- Use the "Tolerance" slider at the top of the window to adjust the level of variance from the original skin tone that Paint.NET should allow when changing colors. At a slider level of "0," Paint.NET will not allow any variance from the color that you selected, and at a level of "100," Paint.NET will color every area of the image that you click, regardless of the color.
Writer Bio
Jason Artman has been a technical writer since entering the field in 1999 while attending Michigan State University. Artman has published numerous articles for various websites, covering a diverse array of computer-related topics including hardware, software, games and gadgets.