The Desert Gold Pack started with a failed trip to Rajasthan. We had the cameras, the locations, and the golden hour — but every edit looked either too orange or too muddy. Three months and 47 preset iterations later, we had something that actually worked.
The Problem With Warm Presets
Most 'warm' presets simply boost the orange channel and push the temperature slider right. It looks great on the thumbnail and falls apart in real use. Skin turns pumpkin-orange. Shadows go greenish. It's a mess.
We wanted something different. We started by studying cinematography colour science — specifically how colorists in films like Dune and Blade Runner 2049 handle warm, high-contrast desert scenes. The answer was always in the tone curve, not the HSL panel.
Key insight
The warmth in Desert Gold doesn't come from the Temperature slider. It comes from a custom tone curve that lifts the red channel in the mid-tones while keeping the shadows neutral. This is what prevents skin tones from going orange.