Lamp & Linen Grades

Color that looks like a room, not a filter menu. Four grades you can dial by hand in any editor that has warmth, contrast, and fade.

Four phone-photo recipes. Warm lamp, soft linen, dusk ink, paper receipt.

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LAMP & LINEN
Four grades for ordinary phone photos. Numbers are starting points. Stop when skin still looks like skin.

SHARED BASE
Shoot near a window. Turn the phone's extra "vivid" and "HDR glow" off if you can. Expose for the face or the product, not the window.

1. LAMP
For evening interiors and anything that should feel switched-on.
- Exposure: -0.2
- Warmth: +18
- Tint: +4 toward rose
- Contrast: -8
- Highlights: -20
- Shadows: +15
- Fade: +8
Use when there is already a practical lamp in the frame. Do not add warmth to a window that is clearly daylight.

2. LINEN
For fabric, paper, pastry, beds, and product flats.
- Exposure: +0.15
- Warmth: +8
- Contrast: -14
- Highlights: -10
- Blacks: +12 (lift them; do not crush)
- Saturation: -6
The photo should feel like unbleached cloth. If it looks foggy, you lifted the blacks too far.

3. DUSK INK
For a darker, quieter frame. Clothes, doorways, a desk after work.
- Exposure: -0.35
- Warmth: -4
- Contrast: +10
- Highlights: -25
- Shadows: -5
- Saturation: -8
- Fade: +4
Keep one small bright thing (a cup, a page, a bulb) so the dark has a reason.

4. RECEIPT
For text, packaging, price tags, and anything you want to read.
- Exposure: +0.1
- Warmth: +2
- Contrast: +6
- Sharpness: +10
- Saturation: -4
- Highlights: -15
Straighten the page. Crop until the words are the subject.

DO NOT
Stack two grades. Grade the photo you have, not the mood you wish you had shot.