Opinions wanted: what's wrong with this screenshot

[Seanik]

if you have a light with a spectrum like this.. then no filtration can fix the missing red. Missing red can create blotches on faces especially middle aged caucasians.

Interesting. I would have thought that the Cosmo would be filtering out the problematic blues that enhance the redness. I'm thinking like when you paint a camera, in the B-R matrix, adding blue actually makes it more red.

 

[morgan_moore]

Interesting. I would have thought that the Cosmo would be filtering out the problematic blues that enhance the redness. I'm thinking like when you paint a camera, in the B-R matrix, adding blue actually makes it more red.

The cosmo could cut that blue spike.

The fundamental thing is that faces contain red, and older people have some blotches that are a darker red, lets us say 700nm.

Lets say the light part of the face is 600nm. The 700nm areas will receive less light in their spectrum than the 600nm areas and therefore throw less light back to the camera and therefore be dark in camera.

Therefore any dark imperfections in the face are hugely exaggerated.

Just like a red car looks black if lit with a blue light.

 

[Seanik]

Ah, ok... that makes sense. Counter-intuitive (in my head), but then again I was thinking in terms of correction and balance rather than dealing with the absence of something. At any rate, the correction I was thinking of was probably more along the cyan vector, which in that chart seems to be relatively under control (in theory).

The way I think of Cosmo working is that it warms up the lighter/less saturated skin tones to match more closely with the deeper red imperfections. Then, you can dial down the warmth to your taste (or leave it if you're Barbara Walters' DP).

 

[JPNola]

I doubt that a layman is unhappy with hue. I suspect his dislike has more to do with how much his age lines show and how he is lit. He'd probably dislike it just as much were it in black and white.

We generally think of soft key light as flattering, but in this instance the key is so flat that there isn't much shaping to his face, he doesn't pop from the background, and the strong back-light almost makes it "feel" like he is under-exposed.

But who knows short of learning more specifics from him, given that he is able to articulate it.

Be aware that individuals who dislike what they said in an interview will sometimes use the lighting / image produced as an excuse to get a re-do. They are unhappy with how they performed in the interview so they throw the DP under the bus, so to speak. They never provide any specifics as to what it is they dislike about the image, because it isn't actually the image they dislike but their own answers in the interview.

 

[combatentropy]

I agree, great points!

in this instance the key is so flat that there isn't much shaping to his face

I still love the lighting in Ken Burns's documentaries the best, with classic portrait lighting: a single soft light 3/4 to the side and maybe 3/4 up.



Okay, maybe it need not be that chiaroscuro. My point really is, a soft key from about that angle.

Anyway, I would say that the backlight in your shot was a little too sourcy too. By that I mean it draws too much attention to the fact that it is a light. It is very close to the subject. His white hair is glowing! And it is very close to the top of the frame. I think it is even causing a little bit of lens flare.

 

[JPNola]

If you end up re-shooting his interview, use a diffusion filter just to cya. Unlikely that anyone complains that they looked too soft and not enough detail in their wrinkles was revealed. :happy:

 

[mainstreetprod]

I doubt that a layman is unhappy with hue. I suspect his dislike has more to do with how much his age lines show and how he is lit. He'd probably dislike it just as much were it in black and white.


In this case, I don't think he is unhappy with his performance- he did a fantastic job. He did mention a couple of the other interviews needing correction, and on one of them (a male), the "ruddy" complexion is much more apparent - looks like he spent all day in the sun. I was easily able to correct it, along with the previously posted one. I had a "generic" interview lighting setup (with audio on a fixed boom) that I moved various historians in and out of. The previous ones were dark skinned and I neglected to adjust for the lighter complexion/ white hair of the new subject.