Lux Pastel
by Robert Luxun · u/SonyKilledMyNikon
View original postRobert Luxun dialed this in on a brand-new GR IV for portraits on bright, blue-sky days. It is deliberately flat: overall contrast sits at -2 while Contrast (Shadow) +3 lifts the shadow floor and Contrast (Highlight) -1 rolls off the top, so harsh light keeps both ends intact. Straight out of camera it reads as a soft pastel film look - and it is built to take a Lightroom finish, which is how Robert gets the exact look in his portrait work.
- White Balance
- Cloudy A0 G0
- Grain
- Off
- Highlight DR
- On
- Shadow DR
- High
- Noise Reduction
- High-ISO Medium / Slow-SS On
From the creator
Robert designed this as a deliberately flat pastel base - "flat and wonderful", in his words - and finishes his shots in Lightroom Classic. By his own estimate the recipe alone gets about 60% of the way to the shots in his thread (he happily shoots it straight for non-portrait work), the HSL pass takes it to 80%, and contrast, curves and dehaze carry the rest. He edits the JPEGs rather than RAW because it roughly halves his editing time, and he saves skin tones for post; in camera he picks Cloudy WB over Daylight, which he finds too orange. His Lightroom Classic moves for a bright blue-sky day: an S curve, then dehaze, contrast and clarity to taste. The HSL pass is the part he calls most important. Channels run red / orange / yellow / green / aqua / blue / purple / magenta: Hue: +10 / -2 / +5 / +5 / +10 / -5 / +20 / +30 Saturation: -20 / -9 / -5 / -30 / -35 / -40 / -45 / -30 Luminance: -27 / 0 / +10 / +15 / +15 / -13 / -15 / 0 Calibration, in panel order (hue, saturation): Red primary +20, +40 · Green primary +50, -10 · Blue primary -5, -10 The original thread (the View original post link above) has his example shots and Q&A.
Camera compatibility
Created on the GR IV - every value dials straight into the GR III and GR IIIx. Those older bodies render a touch cooler and darker, so treat this as a starting point; a small white-balance nudge toward amber brings them closer.
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