Jeff ... this is a classic problem and has many potential variables to consider when addressing it.

The baseline to getting the best exposure possible is to begin with two foundation procedures:

1) Meter your light
If you are shooting in ambient/constant light, using a grey card is an easy and inexpensive way to accomplish this. The tutorial you referred to is a great technique to use, especially if you are shooting a production line with a static set (i.e. camera and subject at same position for each shot, and lighting remains constant). The grey card eliminates the variables of clothing color and skin tone color which can throw off the camera's internal meter readings.

Just for anyone else reading this, the grey card tutorial can be found here:
http://public.fotki.com/RichBruton/welcome_center/tools-of-the-trade/greycard.html

2) Set your white balance
A custom white balance is always best because it yields an accurate color range for optimal reproduction. If you use "Auto W/B" and the color temperature of the ambient light is, say, warm (red/yellow), and your subject has a red shirt, you may blow out the red channel quicker than if you had custom set your white balance to compensate for a weighted red spectrum in your ambient light.

Assuming your camera allows for custom white balancing, there are several ways to set it. One very cool and cheap trick is to make your own "expodisc".

Get a UV Filter for your lens and add a white paper coffee filter cutout to cover the glass on the filter. Attach the filter to your lens and prepare your camera to set a custom white balance. With the paper-covered filter attached to your lens, aim the camera at the brightest source of ambient light in your set. Now activate your custom white balance sampling with your appropriate camera controls.

Done. Now remove the filter and use this custom white balance sample to shoot .... you'll be amazed at the improvement.

(you could, alternatively, just buy an expodisc and be done with it. I have one ... they're great)
http://www.adorama.com/EXWH77.html

Another way to do white balance is to shoot a reference calibration card in your set at the beginning of your shoot. The reference calibration card should have pure black, pure white, and 18% neutral grey.

Later, in post process, you can use the eye dropper tools in Photoshop (or the batch editor of your choice) to sample these 3 reference standards ... and you can make a custom adjustment curve based on these samples. You then save this custom curve and apply it to each photo during your batch processing.

There are other ways, of course, to set a custom balance for your session ... just pick a method you like and USE IT. This will assure you have a standardized foundation each time you shoot.

OK ... so assuming you have done both of these procedures and are now ready to shoot, I will offer a few thoughts below on how to better control your results and get the skintones PLUS great color with every shot :-)

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