Colour harmony and palettes Lightroom presets

A palette is a set of relationships, not a slider position. It decides which hues appear at full strength, which get pulled toward their neighbours, and what happens to everything that was never part of the plan. Built one adjustment at a time, that decision rarely survives a whole set of photographs. These packs impose it whole, and keep skin plausible while they do, because a scheme that turns a face olive has not worked.

Colour Systems by Chromawheel is 252 presets and holds the theory end of the group. Analogous Warm and Analogous Cool keep the frame inside one neighbourhood of the wheel. Complementary Pair and Split Complement set a single opposition and then protect it. Triadic Balance spreads the weight across three points. Monochrome Hue drops everything to one hue and leaves luminance to carry the picture. The named palettes sit beside them: Sage Room, Slate Blue, Plum Dusk, Ochre Field, Rust Iron, Copper Rose, Moss Olive and Neutral Accent.

Palette Set by Pigmentset is 126 and takes seven of those named palettes on their own, for anyone who wants the finish without the wheel behind it. Warm Cool Split by Amberteal is 18 presets on one axis, amber where the light falls and teal everywhere it does not, which is why it holds on a city roof at dusk and inside a lit room at the same hour. Ember Set by Siennatones is 15 in the low warm end, sienna and burnt clay, better suited to earth, linen and late afternoon than to open blue sky.

Test one on a frame that has both a face and a room in it. A palette that is working will change the room and leave the person recognisable.