How can I build a consistent color palette for portrait editing in Lightroom?

[Oliver.M]

I've been trying to develop a consistent look for my portrait photography, and I've been diving into Lightroom color grading. I can follow tutorials to recreate a specific preset, but when I start from scratch with my own raw files, my adjustments feel random and never quite achieve the mood I'm aiming for. Is there a more methodical way to think about building a color palette?

[Kyle_M]

Nice question. A method beats chasing presets. Start by picking a mood and a tiny palette with three core colors a skin tone anchor a secondary color for the environment and a highlight. Build a mood board with five to six photos whose color relationships you like and note what stands out about skin clothing and backgrounds. In Lightroom get a solid base with white balance and exposure so the skin reads well then use the HSL panel to nudge the skin hue and luminance plus the secondary color a bit until it feels right. Use the color grading wheels to push shadows toward a cool teal and highlights toward a warm note and then save that as a preset you can reuse. Where would you begin with the mood you want

[RileyHR]

On the ground pick one portrait and map it to your three color swatches. Define the target hues and approximate their values in lightroom. Turn the shadows toward blue teal midtones toward neutral and highlights toward gentle warmth. Keep saturation modest and watch skin tone stay believable. Do a quick side by side comparison with another shot to see if your palette holds then apply to a few more shots and compare

[FrankMD]

Fair warning sometimes the mood lives in lighting more than color so you may feel like you are chasing a ghost. A practical approach is to treat the palette as guardrails rather than a must. Start with one or two look profiles and switch if a shot does not fit. Does that align with how you shoot most portraits

[Harper.J]

Three archetypes warm natural cool cinematic and high contrast bold. For each define skin hue range and environment hue. For warm natural skin hue near minus five to plus five environment around plus eight to plus twenty for warmth shadows tealish. Use color grading to place those tones and keep a separate profile for consistency. Do you see which of these matches your style

[Lily.M]

Workflow tip keep it lean save a small library of four to six palettes as presets and keep a palette card with hex codes for quick reference apply the same palette to several shots to check for cohesion

[JosephT]

Ask for feedback with a simple rubric that focuses on skin tone mood readability and how well the colors support the subject. Share 2 or 3 edits with peers and see what they flag. Want me to draft a quick one page palette plan you can use