I’m sure you know skin tones are SO important with wedding and portrait photography. And I know you sometimes run into things like fake tans that look too orange, red undertones that look too dark, or difficult lighting that has a colorcast or drains the color out of the skin.

What can you do?

As a private photo editor, I’d say Lightroom’s HSL panel is your easiest tool to get fix skin tones—fast.

Skin tones usually fall in the orange range in the HSL panel. Different factors—like lighting, makeup, and tanning products—can affect how skin appears in your images. Common issues you might run into:

• Skin looking too dark or dull in certain lighting.

• Overly bright or washed-out skin after exposure adjustments.

• The dreaded orange glow from self-tanners.

Luckily, Lightroom makes it easy to fix all of these with just a few simple tweaks!

1. Find the HSL Panel

• Head to the Develop module in Lightroom Classic.

• Scroll down to find the Color Mixer (it’ll be a panel under the Basic panel).

• Select Mixer, so you can adjust Hue, Saturation, and Luminance separately.

• If you click on ALL at the end it will show all three HSL panels at once.

2. Brighten Skin with the Orange Luminance Slider

• Increase Orange Luminance (+5 to +20) to brighten skin and create a soft, healthy glow.

• Decrease Orange Luminance (-5 to -15) if skin looks too light and lacks depth.

• Use the Targeted Adjustment Tool (the small circle icon in the HSL panel) to click directly on the skin in your image and then drag it up or down to adjust the strength of the luminance.

3. Fix Overly Orange Skin from Fake Tans

• Reduce Orange Saturation slightly to tone down intense warmth.

• If needed, adjust Orange Hue slightly left (for a more red tone) or right (for a more yellow tone) until the skin looks more natural.

• Be subtle! Too much desaturation can make skin look gray or lifeless.

Let’s Wrap It Up

So a few quick tweaks in the HSL panel can make all the difference in achieving amazing, glowing skin tones. Whether you’re brightening up a face or fixing an intense tan, these HSL edits help you get natural results—without over-processing.

Try this the next time you're in Lightroom Classic to play with it yourself!

Want to save even more time editing?

Check out my free mini-workshop "Shoot to Edit Less" to learn how to cut your editing time by using a few simple shooting strategies!

Happy editing,

Erika