Settings/lighting for different skin tones

[colonelpanic]

Here comes an old but, for me, never really ultimately answered question.

What are (affordable) lighting techniques and camera settings to capture talents with different skin tones in the same scene next to each other? That is, by keeping the facial expressions of dark skinned persons clearly visible and, at the same time, not over-exposing the light skinned ones.

After sifting through lots of material online and spending hours in the library I still couldn't find the ultimate answer. On the other hand, I found countless tutorials on DVD and training courses - fairly expensive IMHO - which claim to deal with this issue. It seems like this is one of the 'big secrets' of the industry and advice on that end is not given for free. Shame really, as I don't think this is rocket science.

Using common sense and trial-and-error alone never got me to a consistent result in practice in the past (ie using different key lights and gels on different skin tones). I always ended up over or underexposing one or the other person in the same frame. I'm sure I'm just missing some relevant details and most likely the proper tricks of the trade. Also perhaps with filters, or specific camcorder settings (?)

I'd really appreciate any hint.

btw I'm trying to capture dancers, models, musicians and other performing artists for demos, artist portfolios etc. On a dimebag budget, that is. I deal with people from all origins, ie very dark to very pale - in the same setup that is.

[Worley]

Make up and careful lighting.

I think Digital Juice has a free video tutorial on lighting various skins, including bald heads and dark skins.

But remember, on stage, television on in films, make up is used to help ensure even skin tones. So have a search for make up techniques.

[colonelpanic]

Cheers mate.
In fact, I was afraid of an answer along those lines.

Especially dancers start sweating quite a bit after the third take or so. Fresh towels were our session accessory #1 until now but it seems like we'll have to change that to pots of fresh powder in all imaginable skin tones.

I think we'll have to hire a make-up artist who's willing to work for virtually free (drinks, sandwiches and crisps). Any takers in the Bristol region? :D

Nobody ever said it is easy, isn't it?...

btw I checked out the tutorial on DJ. While all their hints are certainly excellent they still stay quite vague about how to handle two very different skin tones in the same take. It does look nice to use soft light close to the talent but it gets very tricky when they are moving fast, thus close light sources are basically no option.

[Erik Bien]

CP,

First, a couple of links that may/may not be helpful:

PopPhoto article (http://www.popphoto.com/howto/2839/lighting-tone-deft.html)

ShootSmarter article (http://www.shootsmarter.com/infocenter/wc001.html)

Both have good information even though they're written for still photographers.

There's a discussion on the CML archive (http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20GB/SkinTone.htm) that's more specific to film/video.

Since it's generally agreed that even very dark skin is rarely more than two stops under very pale skin, removing excessive contrast from other parts of the scene can help (no white wardrobe, don't shoot against a black curtain or a white wall or sunny window, etc.) letting you "expose for the middle" without clipping or crushing anything.

Large, soft, warm-colored sources generally make pleasing key light for most complexions. In a fairly static scene, you can often use the inverse-square law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_square#Light_and_other_electromagnetic_rad iation) to your advantage, keying closer to the darker-skinned subject and letting the light fall off naturally (or helping it with scrims or flags).

Ditto what Worley said about makeup: keeping sweat blotted and faces powdered will save you a lot of grief with too-hot shiny highlights.

[colonelpanic]

Excellent. Thanks Erik.