Portrait grading succeeds when a person's skin still looks believable. The background can carry a strong mood, but faces often need gentler treatment.

A practical way to approach it

Start with the face

Set the exposure around the eyes and cheeks. Watch that forehead highlights are not blown out and dark hair still has structure.

Correct skin before styling

Use Color temperature and tint to remove an unwanted cast. If the shirt is neutral but skin looks too orange, target orange/red channels rather than cooling the whole scene.

Separate face from background

Use a broad radial mask for a small lift in face exposure, or reduce a distracting background color through HSL. Compare both changes at phone size.

One limitation to remember

Extreme smoothness, orange skin and pure-white eyes usually make a portrait feel less natural.

TRY IT ON YOUR PHOTO

Continue in MintGrade: Color controls

Set the exposure around the eyes and cheeks. Watch that forehead highlights are not blown out and dark hair still has structure.

Opens the relevant controls for JPG, PNG and WebP files. No edit is applied until you choose one.

Open color controls in MintGrade →