Skin Tones
Skin tones are the most sensitive reference point when judging colour in an image.
What this is about
People know what skin looks like, and any deviation registers immediately as wrong, even for viewers who could not name what bothers them. That makes skin the first thing a colourist balances and the last thing a creative look is allowed to damage. Vectorscopes carry a skin tone line as an orientation, though it is a guide rather than a rule: real skin varies widely, and a grade has to serve the actual person rather than a target coordinate. Mixed lighting, green walls and heavy secondaries are the usual sources of trouble.
A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.
What runs differently here
In planning terms, that means:
- Balance skin first, then everything else — the rest of the frame has far more tolerance
- The vectorscope skin line is an orientation, not a target; real skin varies widely
- Watch for green spill from walls and plants; it lands on faces before anyone notices
With TillyGen
Review feedback in TillyGen sits next to the exact frame, so a comment about a face refers to one shot instead of to the film in general.
Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.
Frequently asked
Why do faces turn green in office interiors?
Fluorescent light and reflections off green surfaces. Correct the cast on the face separately rather than pulling green out of the whole frame.
How long does it take to get started with TillyGen?
A first project takes under an hour to set up. There is no configuration phase in which templates and fields have to be defined before the tool produces anything.
Can the results be exported?
Yes — as PDF for the crew, CSV for downstream systems and through the API for anything automated. The plan stays the source; the exports are views of it.