Why Your Portrait Colors Look Wrong (And the Correction Workflow That Actually Fixes It)

Why Your Portrait Colors Look Wrong (And the Correction Workflow That Actually Fixes It)

A few years into my retouching work, a beauty client sent back a batch of edits with a single line of feedback: “The skin looks like it was painted on.” I stared at my monitor for a long time after that. The tones were smooth. The highlights were clean. Technically, everything was fine. But she was right. The images felt embalmed rather than alive, and I knew exactly why. I had corrected the color, but I hadn’t corrected it for skin.

Why Your Portrait Colors Look Wrong (And the Correction Order That Fixes It)

Why Your Portrait Colors Look Wrong (And the Correction Order That Fixes It)

A few years back, I finished what I thought was a beautiful set of beauty edits for a skincare brand. Smooth skin, clean background, nice and bright. I sent the gallery over feeling genuinely proud. The creative director wrote back within an hour: “The skin looks a little… gray? And her lips are almost purple. Can you fix the color before we go further?” I stared at my monitor. The skin looked fine to me.