Terracotta Skin sets the weight of the palette in warmth and creativity, and Hair Shadow is the swatch that breaks rank: a single brown that stops the set reading as one note. Window White is the loudest thing in the set and every swatch beside it is warm too, which gives the palette no way to cool a page down and no colour to rest an eye on. Hair Shadow and Window White sit 68 points of lightness apart, enough to separate a foreground from a background without forcing it.
Hair Shadow a near-black espresso brown, weight and gravity without going fully neutral.
Terracotta Skin signals warmth, approachability, and creative energy, friendlier than red, louder than yellow.
Clay Dust signals warmth, approachability, and creative energy, friendlier than red, louder than yellow.
Window White a peach or apricot tint, all the friendliness of orange with none of the volume.
Workshop Green a soft moss-yellow, novelty settled into something more natural.
The face and body as a collaboration between subject, photographer, light, and surrounding world
Explore the full Portrait Photography style guideIts decade on the timeline · 1840s