I agree! The current lighting leaves something to be desired with both light and dark skinned characters. My Elezen's grey skin looks pretty awful in a number of lighting schemes and my pale-af Femroe looks like she took a glow potion in strong light.
That being said, I chose those options, made my bed, and have to sleep in it. All in all, I can't complain though. They look great 99% of the time.
I also have had similar issues since I started doing screenshots in my earlier days. Because every single one of my characters is dark-skinned - I always go for darker shades of brown - and the personal character lighting only helps a little I have to get a little more creative with where I go and how I adjust my personal settings pre-screen.
I think the problem is that the skin doesn't change properties the darker it gets. Usually dark skin tones have higher contrasts of lighting than the pale ones. The best remedy is to add a skin shader option where you can adjust how "shiny" your skin can get or something
The lighting in this game is very inaccurate and should get an overhaul. Self shadowing does also not work well. If you wear a hat and a lamp is over you then the hat is ignored and the lamp illuminates you like if there is no hat etc.
Cheers
The game needs sub-surface scattering, it's the only way to shade skin in a way that looks nice. It's a pretty common technique nowadays though, so I'd be surprised if they don't add this in the graphic overhaul, given the emphasis on characters in this game.
Yeeeep, character creation needs an overhaul and update. It's based on something that is now fourteen years old.