Filmic skin tones - "Jennifer's Body"

[Steven Buckwalter]

This is not meant to be a digital vs. film post, I like both and they each have their place. I'm working on a feature, and in pulling a bunch of imagery as references for what I'm aiming for, and after diving through older threads on this website, I came across "Jennifer's Body", and particularly this frame. I love how it shows warmth, while her skin doesn't look orange, indeed there is a whole range of colors in her skin, from reds to pinks to oranges and even a little blue it seems. Earlier this year I did a side by side test between 5219 and the Alexa, and saw immediately how Kodak was able to really build skin tones into the chemistry of the film. Faces and arms and any exposed skin just seemed to pop with a wider range of color compared the the Alexa.

I'd love to know if Mr. Mullen feels like he can get these kinds of skin tones working digitally now, or if he was shooting Jennifer's Body on digital, would he light it differently? More than that, I'd love to know if this frame was the result of a serendipitous combination of artificial back light and natural cool ambient? Or was he filling with a cooler light here? Or how much of it has to do with Amanda Seyfried's natural complexion or great makeup work? I always want to get better at my craft, and I'd love any input on how different people really focus on getting beautiful skin tones like these. Thanks in advance for any responses.

[David Mullen ASC]

I often warm up hard sunlight and cool off the shadow side -- I think in this case being a location, I probably had HMI's out the windows with 1/2 or 1/4 CTO or CTS, then filled with daylight Kinos, I don't know if I added blue to them since the daylight tubes are cooler than 5500K. The warm backlight is slightly bouncing up into her shadow side adding some redness. I like it when I fill with cool light but there is a lot of warmth bouncing around cutting some of the coldness down.

I think a similar look could be done with a good digital camera but film does tend to pull out the mixed warmth in cool skin, that complex mix that digital often turns to a band-aid tan color.  You'd want to make sure if you were using LEDs for cool fill that that had good color rendering, some lack the far red wavelengths that give skin tone some depth.

[Steven Buckwalter]

Thanks for your response! 

[Phil Rhodes]

Whatever the conclusion is, I think that image is a particularly wonderful example of the complexity of human skin tones. It makes me wonder if that rosy blush in her cheeks is for real, or just the most subtle and carefully-done makeup.