Patent ID: 8103094

Claim:
A computer program product, tangibly stored on a non-transitory machine readable medium, the product comprising instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to: receive a digital image that includes a region depicting human skin; obtain a skin color appearance value based on a sample of one or more pixels in the region, wherein a model has previously been created that relates the skin color appearance value to colorations imparted by melanin and hemoglobin; receive a base skin coloration value, the base skin coloration value being a tan parameter value or a blush parameter value; use the skin color appearance value and the base skin coloration value to determine an estimated perceived color temperature of light illumination in the image, wherein the estimated perceived color temperature is determined using a parametric formula that relates the model for the skin color appearance value, modified by the base skin coloration value, to the estimated perceived color temperature determine a color correction based on the estimated perceived color temperature and a target ambient lighting condition; and apply the color correction to the image.