Balancing color grading with the preservation of natural skin tones is key to producing professional-quality portraits. This guide focuses on simple but effective methods to create a clean, cohesive look across your images, without sacrificing the details that matter most.
Coming to you from Kayleigh June, this practical video explores how to achieve a clean, muted color grade using Lightroom. June begins by discussing the importance of maintaining skin tone integrity while applying a color grade. She emphasizes the need for subtle adjustments that enhance the image without overpowering it. The video then gets into specific adjustments, starting with reducing contrast and bringing up the shadows to flatten the image slightly. This step is crucial as it creates a more manageable base to work from, giving you greater control over the subsequent color grading process. June explains that by first evening out the tones, you create a blank canvas that allows for more precise adjustments in the tone curve. She demonstrates how to bring back contrast selectively, using the curve to add brightness and depth without compromising the overall clean effect.
June also addresses the role of saturation, particularly in skin tones. Overly saturated skin can detract from the natural look you might be aiming for. She shows how to subtly desaturate the oranges in the color mixer, ensuring the skin appears more balanced and less exaggerated. This small adjustment can significantly impact the final image, making it look more polished and professional.
For those who enjoy experimenting with different looks, June suggests using the color grading section to adjust midtones, shadows, and highlights independently. This allows you to introduce complementary tones, such as adding a golden hue to the midtones while cooling down the shadows. These adjustments can give your image a unique character while still retaining that clean, natural look. Check out the video above for the full rundown from June.
