Best skin tones

[Will Keir]

Shot on Arri Alexa for anyone curious.

I've been watching quite a bit of 'Game of Thrones' recently, and although not a film, I'll have to say that it's been a pleasure looking at faces and skin in that series.

Although alot has to do with the interior bits which are shot with lights casting a beautiful colour temperature, that akin to candlelight on the cast -- the series really shows off what Cooke S4's and the magic 'Cooke Look' can do to skin tones.

[Matt Ryan]

Matt. Only the first two shots have a "natural" look IMO. Even these aren't lit for "game of thrones" type skin tones. That show does a fantastic lighting job most of the time. Most of Tyrian's stuff is well lit, but John Snow skin tones look good but much different. A lot depends on the environment of the scene.

I like the look of the actor with the cigar, sure it's a pale face but I think it works. I don't like the 4th and 5th shot at all.

Maybe you can post the whole clip of that scene and we could tell ya more?

I just posted the shots to show a difference of looks based on different lighting conditions/color temps, not trying to get a critique. None of these have been colored yet, just curious what people thought "looked right" to them straight out of camera. I'm not matching popular tv/movie looks if thats what you think, I light based on what I am shooting and the look the that suits the story/theme. As for the shots, some are daylight, some tungsten, one fluorescent uncorrected, a couple mixed color temps, etc. These are from different projects, not all the same shoot. Just looking to see what people thought of these straight out of camera looks from RED and if they think they are natural looking or not.

[Bruce Allen]

I just posted the shots to show a difference of looks based on different lighting conditions/color temps, not trying to get a critique. None of these have been colored yet, just curious what people thought "looked right" to them straight out of camera.

Well, phew - that kinda explains your lack of responses, right?

Personally I didn't want to say anything because I thought you had colored them and... well, they looked like crap.

And I don't like trashing people on the internet.

I'm not matching popular tv/movie looks if thats what you think, I light based on what I am shooting and the look the that suits the story/theme. As for the shots, some are daylight, some tungsten, one fluorescent uncorrected, a couple mixed color temps, etc. These are from different projects, not all the same shoot. Just looking to see what people thought of these straight out of camera looks from RED and if they think they are natural looking or not.

I think they do not look natural. Shot #2 is the closest to looking natural, but still not really there. The others are just the usual godawful RED colors.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Bruce Allen]

My favorite so far - good example of how you can do a cold turquoise / greenish-yellow look (kinda like acid El Greco colors) but still have living warmth of skin show through.

Oh wait... that was shot on film. Damn it!!!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Matt Ryan]

Well, phew - that kinda explains your lack of responses, right?

Personally I didn't want to say anything because I thought you had colored them and... well, they looked like crap.

And I don't like trashing people on the internet.

I think they do not look natural. Shot #2 is the closest to looking natural, but still not really there. The others are just the usual godawful RED colors.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

hahaha I'm not a colorist. These were just straight from cam. Like I said, just curious what people thought of skin tones. I feel as though the best looking skin tones from RED are those shot under tungsten and underexposed by a stop. Can you concur this theory of mine?

[Evin Grant]

Bruce, this may not live up to film in your opinion but here is an attempt at a saturated Epic skin tone. This is a frame from my latest short and this is waaaaaay more saturated than I intend to finish it, but I think it looks as good as any saturated Alexa skin tone, in fact the lips look much better...

[David Mullen ASC]

It's interesting how we can scientifically measure resolution, dynamic range, and color... Yet color is the one aspect where our responses are subjective because we all perceive colors slightly differently and we all apply personal taste when reviewing color, yet we can all generally agree on how many lines of resolution were measured on a chart and how many steps of luminance were captured by a grey scale.

[Bruce Allen]

hahaha I'm not a colorist. These were just straight from cam. Like I said, just curious what people thought of skin tones. I feel as though the best looking skin tones from RED are those shot under tungsten and underexposed by a stop. Can you concur this theory of mine?

I agree with you on underexposing being useful... but not so much on tungsten with RED. Tungsten with RED is iffy for me - sometimes good results, sometimes not good. I see the best results from digital when you are outside during the day.

Bruce, this may not live up to film in your opinion but here is an attempt at a saturated Epic skin tone. This is a frame from my latest short and this is waaaaaay more saturated than I intend to finish it, but I think it looks as good as any saturated Alexa skin tone, in fact the lips look much better...

Now we're talking! You're rehabilitating RED here - nice:) Any filters, or clean?

BTW - Dude, that's the waaaay over-saturated version?? Lemme edit you up a saturated version :)

It's interesting how we can scientifically measure resolution, dynamic range, and color... Yet color is the one aspect where our responses are subjective because we all perceive colors slightly differently and we all apply personal taste when reviewing color, yet we can all generally agree on how many lines of resolution were measured on a chart and how many steps of luminance were captured by a grey scale.

Right... though at the same time, I bet that if you did a blind study, you'd find that an audience prefers filmic skin tones to RED ones :)

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Matt Ryan]

Right... though at the same time, I bet that if you did a blind study, you'd find that an audience prefers filmic skin tones to RED ones :)

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

Depends what age group were talking about here? I think it's all subjective on a per viewer basis. Most every one of my friends couldn't tell you the difference in skin tones from one film to the next, even with an aggressive grade, and I feel like 99% of viewers could care less...

Of course pushing RED to produce more film like skin tones is great, but what are film like skin tones exactly? Not every films skin tones look identical. I have a feeling once RED perfects the color science for skin tones some will complain skin tones are too saturated or some other issue.

[Bruce Allen]

Depends what age group were talking about here? I think it's all subjective on a per viewer basis. Most every one of my friends couldn't tell you the difference in skin tones from one film to the next, even with an aggressive grade, and I feel like 99% of viewers could care less...

Sure, but a) we're making art here often with human subject matter and b) it often affects people on a deep subconscious emotional level.

Of course pushing RED to produce more film like skin tones is great, but what are film like skin tones exactly? Not every films skin tones look identical.

Sure. But I mean, let's take a look at some boring/odd official film promo vids... even then film has a wonderful look... check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV0UQBLZL5o&hd=1
Not 100% what I would do with the color - a bit too saturated even for my tastes and color isn't quite right to my taste! - but wow... imagine if we could get this out of RED... maybe not the fire colors at the end but the skin tones in the beginning for sure :)
or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpWq09bs81g&hd=1
or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIykxqZOxyE&hd=1
lighting details: http://www.fujifilm.com/products/mot...mo/index2.html

And that's Fuji stock... a lot of people prefer Kodak.

And listen to how much they're talking about skin tones... very very important thing. Imagine if you replaced "4K4K4K4K" of RED with "skintoneskintoneskintone" - the world would be a better place.

It seems like we're talking about different decades here in terms of the concerns and terminology expressed here. Lik

I have a feeling once RED perfects the color science for skin tones some will complain skin tones are too saturated or some other issue.

Well, if they can just skin tones close to neutral under varied lighting conditions and then we dial saturation to taste that would be awesome.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com