Help and advices for shooting a black skin?

[Guest Olivier B.]

Gentlemens,

 

I'm a young french cinematographer.

I permit me to ask you some advices about a special shooting.

In some weeks I will shoot a commercial about AIDS with a Black actor shooted on a black background.

Well, of course I will make some tests with him. Also with my film, 35mm Fuji 500 (may be the last one, the Eterna 500T).

 

My question is,

my final light will be strong and the contrast worried me.

Have you got advices about color temperature or may be a filter?

May be some FX light smoke can give a strange looking?

In this case does the stop changes, and anyway can you tell me about the stop with a black skin?

 

Thanks for all answers.

[Guest fstop]

How far away is the background from the subject?

 

Can you tell us a bit more about the content of the script? What happens- what lights are motivating the scene? What do you want to say?

[David Mullen ASC]

Worse case scenario, think about lighting a black car or black bowling ball. Shining a hard light just gets you a hot spot in a black surface. A soft light however gets reflected over the black surface, so you want to be reflecting large white surfaces over the skin. A large soft source to one side for key and a soft edge light to get a soft kick or glow on the shadow side of the cheek works well.

 

Here's a cropped shot of Garrett Morris' face in "Jackpot" lit only by natural window light and a white card behind his ear off of camera right to create a soft kick and bring out the shadow side of his head:

 

 

You can see that the window to the left and the white card to the right are dimly reflected in the surface of his skin, bringing out detail.

 

Here is it again. I crudely painted out the background and added some contrast to make it look like a stage interior shot. You might want to make the soft edge light hotter in this case if you want more separation:

 

[Bob Hayes]

Black folks against dark backgrounds tend to look great. The problem arises more against pure white back grounds. Black skin tones tend to look very dark and loose it's richness. In most lighting situations film loves darker skin.

[Guest Olivier B.]

Thanks a lot for answering Sir.

Mr Mullen, your exemple is very good, playing the window effect looks to be a good solution.

A soft reflective light looks great and a "hard" source for the key must be good.

Anyway I will create all the lighting plan with Fresnel and reflective cards. (Classic but effective) Maybe one openface quartz can strenghten the key with, as you said, a stronger reflective light.

About the make up I guess a natural or almost shining one could be adapted.

Emotionaly it is a man playing with gun in a fatal gambling.

Thanks for images, my director will love them!!!

Garrett Morris is a beautifull actor.

[Guest Olivier B.]

Thanks Mr Hayes,

You're right, I will keep a pure black background.

Interesting exercice, isn't it ?!

[Marco Leavitt]

What about shooting in black and white? I've heard of using a yellow filter to bring out the skin tone and hair of very fair people. Is there a filter that accentuates black skin? We're planning a feature with a largely black cast. I particularly want the lead actress to look spectacular.

[David Mullen ASC]

Yellow cancels blue. The warmer filters in general make faces -- which tend to have red in them -- look lighter with fewer skin variations visible (since they have even more red in the them, like freckles) whereas blue and green filters make these tonal imperfections stand out more.

 

I don't think color filters are really the way to make someone look great as much as good make-up and lighting, maybe some mild diffusion for close-ups.

[Marco Leavitt]

Yellow cancels blue.  The warmer filters in general make faces -- which tend to have red in them -- look lighter with fewer skin variations visible (since they have even more red in the them, like freckles) whereas blue and green filters make these tonal imperfections stand out more.

 

I don't think color filters are really the way to make someone look great as much as good make-up and lighting, maybe some mild diffusion for close-ups.

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Thanks David!

[Bob Hayes]

Black skin often has a nice sheen to it where subtle kicker lights really show up. On litter skin these edges disappear. It?s a great way to ad interest, separation, and definition.

[Ed Nyankori]

Black skin often has a nice sheen to it where subtle kicker lights really show up.  On litter skin these edges disappear.  It?s a great way to ad interest, separation, and definition.

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Ive been testing chocholate colored gels on the bounce. It makes the "highlights" go brown instead of white. I think its very flattering. Definitely not good for every situation but something worth trying.