chapter 08 Troubleshooting
When a warning lights up or a photo goes wrong.
Bench warnings
| Warning | What it means | What to do |
|---|
| card not neutral after WB | the card patch still has a tint after correction: usually glare, mixed light, or the box caught a shadow edge | re-draw the card box on a clean area; if it persists, reshoot with all lights off |
| extreme exposure scale | the shot was badly over/under-exposed; correction is stretching too far | reshoot with AE/AF lock on the cheek, ~⅓ stop under |
| skin hue outside human gamut | the corrected skin color isn't a possible skin color; calibration went wrong upstream | check the card box isn't on glare/shadow; check the photo isn't a JPEG conversion |
| region too small, skipped | a box or trace covers almost no pixels | draw it bigger; traces need 3+ points with real area |
| this arrived as a JPEG | the RAW was converted in transit (usually the iPhone photo picker) | re-send via Files app / USB (see chapter 05) |
Capture failures
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|
| one side of face warmer | lamp/screen was on | everything off, reshoot |
| two pink ovals on the nose bridge | glasses came off too late | 15 min bare-nosed, reshoot the headshots |
| cheeks/forehead redder than neck | gym/shower flush | wait an hour |
| face darker than inner upper arm | tan | wait it out, or accept warm-skew and note it |
| lower face reads gray-blue | stubble in the skin boxes | sample above the beard line only |
| everything slightly dim + soft | shot through a window screen | open the window |
Still stuck? The pipeline's full reasoning is on the Results page and in the PDF report. Every number carries its evidence line. When in doubt: reshoot. A clean 20-minute session beats an hour of salvage.