Skin Corrections & The Film Look

In this edition of From The Mailbag, we take a look at two questions from members Chris Climer and Craig Winterbottom.

Both Chris’ and Craig’s questions are ones that we get asked a lot – how do we approach fixing skin tone problems and how do we recreate the look of a particular film stock?

As always, we dive right in discussing the question but explore some additional things to think about regarding each question.

Remember, if you have questions that you’d like to get an opinion on please use the contact form.

Your questions can be aesthetic, technical or even client related.

We’d love to hear from you, and your question might make future episodes of From The Mailbag.

Blotchy Skin – Several Approaches

First up, we discuss Chris’ question regarding how we fix skin tone problems.

Chris wrote in a few weeks ago describing a shot he was trying to fix of a person with really blotchy skin tone – the person had patches of red and yellow all over his face.  Chris was wondering if the best way to attack the problem was Power Windows or if there was another way?

Not surprisingly, all three of us had slightly different approaches including using secondary curves, keying and a combination of using keying with windows.

We also explore why mixed lighting can be challenging no matter what on skin tone and the importance of having a good make up artist on shoots.

Emulating The Film Look Of A Popular Show

Next, we discuss Craig’s question.

Craig wrote describing how he was trying to emulate the look of the popular series The Walking Dead.

If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s shot on film and has a pretty distinctive look. Here is a pretty interesting article with the DP and a little about the production process.

So, Craig got his hands on a LUT that emulated the film stock used on the show and while he was getting good results it was not quite spot on.

We discuss how LUTs are emulations of stocks and not replications as well as the dozens of other things that go into creating a look.  We also explore how we handle dealing with requests from clients to build grades based on popular TV shows and film.

Enjoy the Mail Bag! Happy Holidays!

– Team Mixing Light