Colour · skin tones

Grading presets for skin

Six desks for an Asian wedding. Each one holds a range of complexions under that room’s light, and keeps a red lehenga out of the skin. The preview is a screen approximation, not a LUT. The numbers are what you dial.

Couple in warm garden light, the reference frame for a fire-lit mandap grade — As shot

Mandap fire grade on the same frame — Mandap fire

Expose for the faces. Let the flame bloom. Warmth stays in the fire, not painted onto the skin.

The same grade, across a family

Reference chips, not portraits. If the deepest chip sinks when the lightest one looks finished, the preset is wrong for this room.

Deep
neutral · #4a2918 → #672e09
Deep
warm · #6b3a22 → #8b4114
Medium
neutral · #8d5524 → #b15e16
Medium
olive · #7d6840 → #9f7436
Light-medium
warm · #c68642 → #f4993b
Light
neutral · #e0ac69 → #ffc66a

Lehenga red
cloth · #8c1c1c → #b11f0e
Gold thread
metal · #c4a574 → #f3bd75

Mandap fire · recipe

White balance: 4300K
Exposure: +0.15
Contrast: 8
Shadows: +10
Highlights: -8
Saturation: -6
Skin sat, 15–50°: -10
Red sat, 0–15°: 6
Teal in shadows: 0

In the qualifier, pull saturation off skin before you pull it off the dress. A hue between about 15° and 50° is the skin window for this desk. Cloth red sits nearer 0–15°. They are not the same slider. Grade to the darkest face you need, not to the lightest person on the stage.