Director/Cinematographer Gabrielle Blackwood released her all-new GB LUTs Pack, including the dark skin tone lookup tables: Blue Mahoe, Cinnamon, and Hazelnut.

Gabrielle recognizes that lighting and color grading for dark skin tones is subjective. Growing up in the Caribbean and being exposed to varying shades of skin tones has shaped Gabrielle’s eye. However, this view may differ wildly from someone who grew up in a completely different environment. 

Authenticity and lived experience help us avoid stereotypes. For example, just because you’re in a tropical environment doesn’t mean the image should just have a yellow wash to it. On the contrary, Gabrielle sees multiple shades instead of just one or two. She lives in the world of red-browns, yellow-browns, blue-blacks, gray-blacks, and even gray-brown-blacks. The shades depend on the lighting conditions.

Gabrielle started out creating LUTs for her needs. Then, she discovered others like her were frustrated. Who hasn’t dealt with color issues when getting their imagery back from post-production? Or, maybe production didn’t allocate enough time to color grading and it just went to an editor for a general grade. Not to mention, LUTs are also great for filmmakers just starting out and are not used to color grading. 

We hope you enjoy Gabrielle’s free GB LUT Pack! She encourages everyone to feel free to use and share them as they wish — and we encourage you to tag her: @gabrielle_blackwood

The Dark Skin Tone LUTs are here to help you. So, adjust them and play around with them until you have the image that best suits your project! 

Gabrielle Blackwood is also known for Grave Digger (2011), Denis (2015), and The Black Man (2020). 

More from Gabrielle Blackwood for cinematographers and Do-It-All filmmakers:

LUTs for Dark Skin Tones