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cosmetic gels
hello,
I am the producer/director/lighting designer/graphics…you name, it I do it, for a studio show at the college where I work.
The show is a talking heads style interview show with a pair of co-hosts. We light all host and guest positions with key and fill (1K Fresnels hung from our studio grid). One of the hosts is olive skinned the other is very fair skinned. The fair skinned host always looks washed out so i’m thinking of putting some cosmetic gel on her lights. Any suggestions? I don’t want to over correct and make her look like she’s sun burned.
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6 Replies
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There are several methods to add color to a “fair skinned” subject. As you correctly suggest, cosmetic gel is one method, another is makeup and another is in the camera set up; add saturation or adjust the matrix to feature the red/yellow direction.
If you do go the cosmetic gel route, keep in mind that when you white balance the camera, you should do so with out the gel, then add the gel. Otherwise if you white balance with the gel you’ll just subtract the additional color you’re trying to add!
I’d try to use camera setup first, as using gels requires maintanence of the gels over time as they fade and burn, so the effect might not remain consistant over time.
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[john sharaf] “I’d try to use camera setup first,”
I know you can’t tell us how to do that in detail as every camera will differ, but could you tell a little more about that strategy?
— BC
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Bob,
Something as simple as fooling the auto white balance with a warm card might just do the trick. An 812 filter is often used for the same warming effect, which essentially adds color saturation. Some cameras, notably the Ikegami’s have an overall “Saturation” effect which serves to add color to an otherwise “pastey” complection. Otherwise as i suggested, painting a more colorful matrix will solve this problem, especially by “growing” the saturation in the red/yellow direction, where the flesh tones fall.
These solutiomns are in addition to anything you might do with makeup or lighting. as you can see there arte many ways to ‘skin a cat’.
JS
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If we adjust set-up we run the risk of having the backdrops look different, right? the flats behind the talent are lit with purple gelled kickers, so if we add red in setup the color would probably look different than in the other cameras. This being the case, I think gel is the best way to go. Do you have any suggestions about particular color, manufacturer, etc.?
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Try Lee Cosmetic Peach (#184), Cosmetic Burgundy (#185), Cosmetic Highlight (#188) or Cosmetic Rouge (#187). Like alkl the other solutions, the ultimate will require testing and skillful observation!
JS
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thanks I’ll give them a try
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