Skin Tones

HSL Adjustments Are the Reason Your Colors Look Muddy (And How to Fix That)
Color Grading

HSL Adjustments Are the Reason Your Colors Look Muddy (And How to Fix That)

I was editing a batch of golden hour portraits last spring, and everything looked slightly wrong. The skies were beautiful, the skin tones were warm, but the greens in the background had this sickly yellow cast that made the whole scene feel off. I’d already pushed the global white balance as far as it could go without wrecking the faces. The HSL panel was the only move left, and within about four minutes, the problem was gone.

Fix Muddy Skin Tones, Lens Fringing, and Crooked Horizons in Lightroom — Three Moves That Actually Matter
Video Tutorials

Fix Muddy Skin Tones, Lens Fringing, and Crooked Horizons in Lightroom — Three Moves That Actually Matter

I used to make the mistake most beginners make: I’d apply a preset, think the edit was done, and export. Then I’d look at the photo two days later and wonder why the skin looked like someone had applied a Instagram filter from 2012. The problem wasn’t the preset itself. It was that I didn’t know how to dial it back in when something went wrong. That gap between “I applied a preset” and “I know what I’m doing” is exactly what this Mango Street tutorial covers, and it does it in under five minutes.