The Makeup Artist Handbook

by Gretchen Davis

  Figure 4.3 Soft Box Example

  Figure 4.4 Reflector Board

  The other key element is attention to detail. Every little detail on your image is very important for the final print. In fashion photography, the focus is mainly on the clothing, accessories, and the “look” of the model—an example would be a fashion advertising campaign (Figure 4.5). Editorial shoots are more for storytelling and are centered more on the mood of the photograph. You highlight certain features both with lighting and details to achieve a successful image.

  Figure 4.5 Fashion Photo, J.C. Cerilla Photography

  I love shooting editorials because it gives me more freedom to create (Figure 4.6). Let your imagination run wild and show your capabilities as an artist. Keep in mind that clients love a photographer with a creative vision, and the photographer loves a Makeup Artist who can contribute to that vision as part of the team.

  Figure 4.6 Editorial Photo, J.C. Cerilla Photography

  Black-and-white photography is never outdated with its classic feel (Figure 4.7). There should be a distinguishable contrast between the shadows and the highlights in your image. The main light source should be three times the power of your “fill” light: This creates more shadow on your photo, but by having a “fill” light you will still see some details on the dark areas of the image. The makeup would also require the same contrast between shadows and highlights.

  Figure 4.7 Black-and-White Photo, J.C. Cerilla Photography

  Color photography on the other hand has little contrast and the lighting is more a direct source (Figure 4.8). When shooting in color, you have to know what kind of light is being used. Color temperatures differ from one light source to another. Hot lights create an orange temperature on your subject much like the sun on a clear day. Fluorescent lights tend to cast a cooler temperature like green or blue.

  Figure 4.8 Color Photo, J.C. Cerilla Photography

  Remember, attitude is as important as your skill and talent! During a shoot, I need my Makeup Artist to be positive and enthusiastic. Models start their day with the Makeup Artist. If you show a bad attitude, this creates a domino effect for the rest of the day and the shoot.

  Gel Filters

  Gel filters (Figure 4.9) are used in front of the light source to change what the light is putting out. Lighting designers use gel filters for many different reasons. Gel filters are made of transparent plastic that is heat resistant, and they come in various translucent colors. They should not absorb heat, and are usually made of polyester or polycarbonate. You usually buy them in sheets or rolls. Film people tend toward rolls, theatre people toward sheets. Why gels and filters are used and what color is chosen can affect your makeup. There are also digital equivalents of lighting gels and filters created by companies such as GAMPRODUCTS, Inc. with Digital Film Tools. The following explains the color of the gels for photo cameras, film cameras, video, theatre, and digital add-ins, and what each color is most often used for, as well as how to adjust your makeup to work under these conditions.

  Figure 4.9 Filter Color Wheel

  General Breakdown of Colored Gel Filters for Light Sources

  No-Color Blue: Top light for theatrical daytime. Top light in theatre tends to pale the skin tone. Areas of the face such as the eyes tend to sink or cast a shadow.

  Blue Gels: Used most often to match daylight or to suggest night time. Can be used to make a light source bluer, and also used with other gels to achieve specific color temperature. If used with plus or minus green, will help correct some fluorescent or discharge sources. Used on lights and windows. Blue gels, depending on what is being shot, can have a cooling effect on the skin tone and overall makeup. Reds look like hues of violets and pinks (tints). Blues and blue greens tend to fade. Lipsticks appear darker.

  Gray Gels: Used on lights where color temperature and sharp shadow or patterns must be maintained. Works as a neutralizer and will also neutralize your makeup colors.

  Orange Gels: If used with appropriate amount of plus or minus green, will help correct some fluorescent or discharge sources, and can also be used to simulate sunlight. Use on light or windows. Makeup colors stay the same, but try not to layer with too many warm tones, which could create an orange face. If the person has a ruddy skin tone, add green to your makeup.

  Yellow Gels: Fills for sunlight and to warm a room. Makeup stays the same, but if the person has sallow skin, use violet to add life.

  Yellow Gold Gel: Warm tones, enhances skin tones. Makeup stays the same. If you have golden undertones in the skin, all the warm colors will work. If you have cool undertones, blue greens and red violets look nice.

  Peach Gel: Can be used to make a light source more orange. Will enhance skin tone. Makeup stays the same. A flattering color for all skin types. Used most often for video or close-up beauty shots.

  Red Gels: Used for sunsets, sunrises, fires, and to add contrast. Red fades most of your makeup. Lips appear much lighter. Greens will look darker, and violets will look black. Good to create contrast. Used most often for theatre or specialty film.

  Green Gels: Used to match the green spike in fluorescent lights or discharge. Also can be used with other gels for color effect. Used on lights, windows, and to contrast. All green colors will fade. Blushers all but disappear. Lips look dark, so a lighter and brighter lipstick works. The warm tones in red orange, orange, and yellow orange look good. Blues will take on a blue green tone.

  Camera Filters

  By Paul Wheeler, Digital Cinematography

  Camera filters are used to alter the temperature of lights, change an image, or enhance colors (Figure 4.10). The following filters can also be used in digital shooting situations:

  Figure 4.10 Effect of Infrared Light on Skin Tone

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Color-Compensating Filters (CC Filters): Come in primary colors and are used in front of the camera lens to correct light.

  Color-Correction Filters: Used to correct a daylight scene when shooting with tungsten-balanced film.

  Skin-Tone Warmers: Filters that will warm up skin tones that would appear cold otherwise.

  Sepia, Coral, and Others: Filters that lend a variety of tints to a scene.

  Graduated Filters: Usually come in colored or neutral density filters. These filters are used to darken or color one area of a scene without affecting the rest of the scene.

  Natural-Density Filters: Used to open up the aperture at which you will shoot the scene.

  Low-Contrast Filters: Reduce the overall contrast in a scene.

  Ultra-Contrast Filters: Like the low-contrast filters, but work with the incident, ambient light. Ultra-contrast filters work beautifully with bringing up shadow details.

  Fog Filters: Emulates fog. Images will have less definition and contrast.

  Double Fog Filters: Objects near to the camera will appear less affected than those far away.

  Pro Mist Filters: Give a glow around intense sources of light. Highlights become “pearlized.”

  Net Filters: Nets will affect the scene differently depending on the color used. A white net will diffuse highlights into shadows. Dark nets will often bleed shadows into highlights. A brown net will add richness and overall warmth.

  Enhancing Filters: Bring out one color at a time without affecting any of the others. These filters affect the red and orange portions of a scene.

  Fluorescent-Light (FL) Correction: The FLB filter corrects fluorescent light to type-B film or tungsten-balanced video camera. The FLD filter corrects fluorescent light to daylight camera.

  Polar Screens: Screens that are used to darken the blue portion of a sky in color photography as well as reducing reflections in parts of a scene.

  Black-and-White Photography

  Black-and-white photography with the use of light registers color in variations of gray. Seen this way, more attention should be given to composition and the levels of tone that a color will be. Tones are used with light in black-and-white photography to portray emotions
through the lightness or darkness of shadows. The direction of light is important to the Makeup Artist. Front lighting will reduce the textures and depth of the photo. Backlighting will highlight the image and reduce the detail. If the image is lit from the side, it will have a greater dimension. When shooting outdoors in direct light, shadows will appear darker, with contrasting lights and darks. Cloudy or misty days will soften shadows. But this said, how the sun reacts during a shooting day will greatly influence your decisions. Full sun will create a harder light, with stronger shadows and highlights. Cloudy or partial sun has a softer look. Your makeup could look one way in the morning light, and another way at noon when the sun is strongest. Be aware of this throughout the day.

  Artificial lights are used to control the brightness of the image and for different lighting effects. Usually tungsten or incandescent lighting is used. These light sources can also be used in color photography. Digital black-and-white photography works by switching the modes within the camera from a color liquid crystal display (LCD) to grayscale. Pictures are taken with color signals that are recorded by computer-controlled display (CCD), but the image is later processed to remove all color. Filters are also used in all forms of black-and-white photography. Many photographers feel that if you have experience and expert knowledge in black-and-white photography, you will thrive in color photography. That is because of the natural instincts you will develop by working in gray tones. That theory works for the Makeup Artist as well.

  Filters Used in Black-and-White Photography

  Black-and-white photography uses filters to alter shades of gray. The following filters and their functions will allow the Makeup Artist to adjust makeup according to what filters are used, whether for art's sake or for natural makeup, when adjustments are necessary.

  Red Filters: Red filters are used to add dramatic contrast in black-and-white photography. In color photography, red reduces blue and green. Red filters will enhance any red.

  Yellow Filters: Will darken blues and lighten green, yellow, orange, and red colors.

  Orange Filters: Work the same way as red filters and yellow filters, except with less intensity than red but more intensity than yellow.

  Green Filters: Will lighten green colors.

  Blue Filters: Will lighten blues and darken yellow, orange, and red. Works well to enhance fog mist or haziness.

  Diffusion Filters: Are used for a soft-focus effect (as in softening wrinkles on the face).

  Optical Effect Filters: Are multi-image filters such as star filters. These filters can bring a soft, diffused look to the image.

  Polarizing Filters: Are used in color and in black-and-white photography. Reflected sunlight is reduced, haze can be penetrated, and overall skies are darkened. Color saturation is increased. Reflections are reduced or eliminated.

  Today, there is, more than ever, a growing field of technology in the world of entertainment. What a production chooses to shoot and edit with can be wide open. This technology has opened the door to new and wonderful tools to work with. One of those tools is being able to edit digitally and create the same effect that gels and filters give when used on a light source. Digital Film Lab is a unique plug-in from Digital Film Tools meant to simulate a variety of color or black-and-white photographic looks, diffusion and color-gradation camera filters, light gels, film stock, and optical lab processes. You would still apply the same principles (filter gels) on what colors to choose for makeup to better fit the digital color process it would go through later. Figure 4.11, Figure 4.12, Figure 4.13, Figure 4.14, Figure 4.15, Figure 4.16 and Figure 4.17 show Digital Film Tools simulated color gels and filters from Digital Film Labs.

  Figure 4.11 Digital Plug Filter, Original

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Figure 4.12 Digital Plug Filter, Antique

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Figure 4.13 Day for Night

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Figure 4.14 Cool

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Figure 4.15 Bleach

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Figure 4.16 Halo

  Photograph by Larry Stanley

  Figure 4.17 (Ingry)

  Photography by Larry Stanley

  Lighting Lessons

  Lighting, like color, is complex. A simple lesson in light and gels will remind the Makeup Artist why these things can affect his or her work.

  Lesson One: Gel Filters

  1. Take a digital camera and hold a colored gel filter up against the lens. Take a close-up picture of an object under a simple light source (for example: a plant, flower, lips, animal, or whole face).

  2. Using that same object and same light source, continue to take pictures, one at a time, with the following colored gels: blue, gray, orange, yellow, red, and green.

  3. Observe each picture.

  4. Write down the differences that the gel filters make to the same object.

  This lesson is extreme. You'll rarely have an actor pure blue or pure green because of filters. However, it does show you how your makeup should be adjusted when gel filters are being used.

  References

  Tawil, J.N., Color Description Terms for Light, www.gamonline.com/catalog/colortheory/language.php.

  Tawil, J.N., The Language of Additive and Subtractive Color Mixing, www.gamonline.com/catalog/colortheory/language.php.

  Wheeler, P., Digital Cinematography. (2001) Focal Press.

  Zolenski, V., Black and White Photography, www.blackboardarts.com (2007).

  Internet Resources

  Cerilla, J.C., Still Photography, www.jcerilla.com.

  Digital Film Tools, www.digitalfilmtools.com.

  GAMPRODUCTS, Inc, www.gamonline.com.

  Ilford Photo, www.ilfordphoto.com.

  Robin Kanta Photographic Supply, www.photofilter.com.

  Stanley, L., www.montanaphotographer.com.

  5. Technology

  Makeup Artists need to be aware of what medium they are being hired to work in. Most Makeup Artists are freelance, meaning that they can work in any number of mediums in the course of a week, month, or year. Is it film, HD, TV-16mm film, print, or theatrical? For example, a print job could be fashion, editorial, or beauty.

  What are the meanings of some of the industry terms, such as digital, HD, bluescreen, greenscreen, and monitor? Our goal in this chapter is to try and help you understand the industry “tech stuff” that you will encounter as a Makeup Artist.

  Today, you can and will work out of one kit for most mediums. We now share the same industry standards of products for film, print, HD, and sometimes theatre, which was not the case in the past. Technical innovations and constant product developments have greatly improved our ability to work across multiple mediums without multiple kits. It is all in the technique, skill, and application of the products. All the industry standards are multiuse products by adjusting the intensity of application and the finish. A typical week could be that your job on Monday is in HD, so you want a more matte finish for that medium. You would apply complete coverage with your foundation and powder well. On Tuesday, your job is in TV, 16-mm film, so you use the same foundation, with a sheer application and less powder. Using MAKE UP FOR EVER HD foundations as an example, you can get a wide range of coverage in multiple mediums: either full coverage with a smooth flawless finish for HD or a sheerer coverage that enhances the skin tone for film and TV, or spot painting for the most natural and undetected makeup look, with no need for powder (see Chapters 6 and 7).

  Matiki Anoff uses Dr. Brandt primer Pores No More as a base when working in HD television to ensure a smooth finish and Chanel Under Base with Shimmer over the foundations to add illumination to her HD makeup if it starts to look chalky. This is an example of using industry standards in different mediums as well as cross product use. The cross product use would be applying the Chanel over the foundation (HD use) instead of under the foundation (film use) as the product is meant to be used under foundation for retail
use.

  What HD Looks Like

  By Paul Wheeler

  High-definition (HD) images are very sharp, with long tonal ranges. Colors are lifelike and true. Whether seen on a monitor or digitally projected, there is no dirt on the pictures, no scratching, and no picture instability. Adjustments can be made with filters or within the camera menus.