Memory colors

Memory colors are the few colors our brains carry a fixed reference for — skin, sky and foliage above all — so any error in them reads as wrong instantly, even to someone who has never opened a scope. A viewer has no stored idea of what a stranger’s jacket should look like, but everyone knows what a face should look like, which is why skin gets its own grading discipline. Getting the memory colors right — skin on the skin-tone line, believable sky and greenery — is most of what makes a grade read as natural rather than “off”.

First used in: 2.6 · Skin tone