[pure-silver] Re: Skin tones


----- Original Message ----- From: "BOB KISS" <bobkiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 3:31 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Skin tones


DEAR RICHARD,
As mentioned, View Camera did an article on this a few years ago and they
cited quite a few photographers who used Ortho film. They were
concentrating on the 30s glamour looks and they specifically mentioned how
the skin tones were achieved with Ortho film.
As I also mentioned there are some films like Plus X which don't have as
much red sensitivity as other films and then one can always use a green
filter with panchromatic film as I mentioned that I did 35 years ago with
wonderful results so I have done the experimentation and am quite convinced
of the results.
I met George Hurrel once at Andy Warhol's factory when I was shooting for
Interview Magazine and they were featuring him in an issue. I was hired for
the same issue to photograph the designer Valentino and the manager of his
Paris boutique, Georgina Brandolini. I purposefully used lighting
techniques and props in my shot as an homage to Hurrel.
CHEERS!
BOB


Well, I would like to know what View Camera's sources were.
Which Plus-X are you talking about, the current stuff or a historical version. The current Plus-X has about the same sort of spectral curve as other conventional films according the published Kodak data. When panchromatic films first began to be availble there were three levels of red sensitivity, classified as A, B, and C by Kodak with increasing sensitivity in that order. Note that this is not an extension of wavelength but of amplitude. Some of the very early pan films had too much red and not enough green sensitivity leading to distorted tone rendition of colors. The best ortho films of the time did look better. Later sensitizing dyes evened out the sensitivity and good pan films were avaiable by the mid to late 1930's.
Green filters can help when working outdoors with pan films because they give darker skys without washing out skin as do yellow or orange filters. T-Max films have more green and less blue sensitivity than most other films to are more nearly accurate for color especially in daylight.
Makeup changes the rules because one is then photographing the makeup and not the skin.
BTW, in early sound motion picture practice special "panchromatic" makup was used. The base was magenta and lipstick was green. I don't think this was in use for very long.
It was common practice in B&W motion picture photography to paint things in colors that would reproduce in the desired gray value. For instance, I remember seeing folliage being sprayed with brick red paint at Fox around the mid 1950's.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

=============================================================================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your 
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) 
and unsubscribe from there.

Other related posts: