Cinematography and Makeup

[Shrinivas Namdeo Gaikwad]

As a DP what and how much you should know about the makeups , the tones , sometimes make up artist use cuttings (shade difference) to hide double chin etc. 

And please advise book or articles on make-up for camera.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Very little, other than taking note of the occasional color cast problems between a particular brand of makeup and a particular camera sensor and LED lighting units. Just hire a great HMU person, really. They are experts at what they do for a reason.

Haven’t seen the color cast thing in a long time, but there were issues with some of the earlier Red cameras rendering some foundation makeup green under certain types of LED lights. Don’t remember the specifics, but I haven’t noticed it in the last 5 years or so. I also don’t use a wide variety of LED lights regularly, so that maybe why I haven’t experienced it lately. 

[aapo lettinen]

30 minutes ago, Satsuki Murashige said:

Very little, other than taking note of the occasional color cast problems between a particular brand of makeup and a particular camera sensor and LED lighting units. Just hire a great HMU person, really. They are experts at what they do for a reason.

Haven’t seen the color cast thing in a long time, but there were issues with some of the earlier Red cameras rendering some foundation makeup green under certain types of LED lights. Don’t remember the specifics, but I haven’t noticed it in the last 5 years or so. I also don’t use a wide variety of LED lights regularly, so that maybe why I haven’t experienced it lately. 

Led lights have gotten significantly better in recent years so that may be the sole reason. That is why I don't want to purchase any used led lights... the old ones tend to be aged, green and nasty

[Satsuki Murashige]

2 minutes ago, aapo lettinen said:

Led lights have gotten significantly better in recent years so that may be the sole reason. That is why I don't want to purchase any used led lights... the old ones tend to be aged, green and nasty

Yes, that’s true. I think OLPFs on cameras have also gotten better, particularly with Red and Blackmagic cameras. Sony cameras used to be really magenta as well, before Venice/FX series.

The odd thing about those ‘green makeup’ days was that it was usually not visible to the eye. I had to call over the HMU to the monitor to see it. Haven’t had to do that since probably 2012 or so.

[Vital Butinar]

Well my girlfriend who is a DP used to be a makeup artist and she says that in most situations it's really good to think about the makeup when thinking about the lighting. 

For example a couple of years back she still did some makeup gigs and a group of guys who were shooting a calender with a bunch had this weird lighting setup and then an even weirder color grade makingit look like the eye further from the lens was smaller or something. But because they didn't tell her or talk about it she could not have know so she was really unhappy about it.

So yeah she always coordinates with the makeup artist before we shoot sometimes even way in preproduction when we're doing the shot list. But we usually use the makeup artists.