Way back, I came across some free files for V2, at RDNA, which modified texturemaps by changing the base Diffuse Color. I'll have to dig them out and see how the idea works for V4. As I recall, the results were OK for the smaller changes, sort of within the European range of skin tones. It's something that might be useful for V4 at the moment, with so few texture sets out there. This looks like the file. They're partial poses, just changing a part of the materials settings, and I doubt there's an easy way of translating them. I modified some for V3 by hand-editing, changine material names and duplicating the block a few times. Look for the Beach Babes set near the end of the freestuff section, on this page.

They don't really work in newer versions of Poser. I think that is why DAZ discontinued them. they seem to detach nodes, etc. since they are partial MAT poses and Poser 5 on doesn't like them. Maybe 7 will take them again.

All I can say is that I never had any problems using them, and I've just tried with P6. But I got two different sets mixed up. Go for the "V2 Skin Tones". The Beach Baby set is a bit more complicated in what it tries to do.

Uh - I may be barking up the wrong tree, but it seems to me that if I change Diffuse_Value to something other than 1, then the color of the skin changes in renders (not in previews though).  Is there a reason why this is not a good idea in general?  And specific to AntoniaTiger's question, are you more interested in moving freckles and blemishes around (which I am, and will be wanting to figure out how to do other than just modifying the base texture) or changing color and brightness?

It's just that with so few textures around at the moment, I reckoned people might be able to use this old method.

They seem to like disconnecting nodes from what I remember but I will look at it again. They mostly nuke the bump nodes.

If you want to make changes to only some of the material settings without disturbing the nodes, you need to use either a script/Wacro or a tool like ShaderSpider (or possibly MaterialManager).

OK, I can confirm that P6 doesn't quite break, but all the shader nodes except the texturemap will vanish. Doesn't spoil the usefulness of adjust skintones by combining Diffuse Color with a texturemap, but it isn't easy. Here's a quicky to show what can be done, using the standard texturemap for V4. Clothing via Wardrobe Wizard.