Is there a 'simple' way to lighten/darken skin?

Reality Hack

Without it turning into clay? Or is that basically why there are several products for manipulating skin? I've looked into some of them, but there are a few where the before/after pictures actually look worse! I also tried the new Texture Booster (https://www.daz3d.com/texture-booster) but I quickly destroyed my character's skin, then spent the subsequent few hours fiddling with it, and trying (and failing) to fix it.

I know there's like a billion things that go into what skin looks like, and that it's different in different situations, lighting, rendering, etc. I'm literally just looking for a way to go, "hm. The skin appears to be a little dark in this scene. I should lighten it a little bit," without resorting to post. (Which brings it's own whole set of problems with Daz Studio.)

And if the answer is simply 'no because reasons,' I totally accept that. I was just wondering if there was a simpler way because...damn.

Thanks in advance.

crosswind

It may depend on how you define a lighten / darken skin... Tweaking Diffuse Roughness, Translucency Weight, adding gamma value with Image Editor from the mappable slots, etc. will bring some of the effects... as per the exp. of my own. I believe there're still more quick work around.

nonesuch00

I use the translucency channel and set the color to a very pale color and the % to a percentage closer to zero. Search in the forum for MelissaGT's (or GTX???) posts as she does a great job of adjusting shader seatings on skin to make skin look more natural and less HDR.

If you have too much bright light and you are doing a portrait closeup you'll make them look less realistic. Also, proper blurring as typical for protraits is important. Those that do those realistic portraits in the galley use diffuse lighting combined with blur and typically include most of the torso rather than zooming in too close to the face.

Reality Hack

Well, I've been playing around with it all day, but still haven't arrived at anything I'd consider 'acceptable'.

So, image 0 is how I define lighten / darken skin. (Sorry for the junky selection.) And that's literally from just bringing down the highlight input level. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's lighter.

I tried Diffuse Roughness, and Translucency Weight, and whatever else I could. Attached are the results along with the settings.

Diffuse Roughness had no effect. (Image 2.)
Diffuse Overlay Weight managed to brighten her skin, but it quickly washed everything out. (Image 3.)
Translucency actually succeeded in lightening her skin, but quickly turned her into a mannequin. But, I suppose it's better than nothing at this point.

MelissaGT's stuff is okay, but I'm not trying to do a deep-dive into SSS. I literally just wanted to lighten the skin.

Thanks for the suggestions though. I really do appreciate it.