The Effect of Chromatic and Lightness Components for Preferred Skin Color Reproduction on a Display

Abstract

It is essential to understand preferred skin colors for color reproduction in the display industry. This article presents three psychophysical experiments that were conducted to determine the preferred skin color ranges of East Asian women by East Asian observers on the chromatic and lightness components of CIELAB color space displayed on a standard sRGB-gamut display. In the first experiment, the preferred skin color was searched using various settings of correlated color temperatures (CCTs) and luminance levels on the screen. The results indicate that the most preferred skin color on a display had small differences between various images varying in CCT and luminance level. In the second experiment, a more precise preferred skin color center was produced. The preference scores were analyzed, and the preference map of skin colors was presented on the CIELAB a∗ b∗ plane. The final experiment examined the relationship between the lightness of facial skin color and the perceived preference on a display. It was conducted to examine the effect of the lightness component on the preference of facial skin color. It was found that the <mml:math overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>C</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∗</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>h</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> value of the most preferred skin colors of East Asian women is (25.4, 50.5), with an L∗ value of 65.