When filming on your phone have you ever noticed that you face looks like you’ve been far too generous with the fake tan? There are a couple of reasons for this and today I tell you what they are and how to fix them. Learn all you need to know by watching the video below or scroll down for some text and GIFs.
We’ve all seen these videos online, people have filmed themselves on their phone and their skin looks oranger than a carrot on a snowman. The main 2 reasons are that the footage is underexposed and the white balance is wrong. Don’t worry if you don’t know what I am talking about, you will in a few minutes.
Underexposure
Let’s start with the exposure. In basic terms your exposure is how much light in getting to your camera. For your camera to create a great image it needs to get as much light as possible. When your image is underexposed, like in the GIF below, then the camera isn’t getting enough light. One of the side effects of underexposure is the changing of colours like your skin tone.
So how do we fix this, first of all make sure you are tapping on your face on the screen so that your phone is exposing for this area.
Secondly add more light. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy expensive lighting rigs, it may be as simple as changing your shooting location. For example, if you have your back to a window then your camera is going to expose for the bright light outside. Try turning 90 or 180 degrees so that the light from outside is actually lighting your face.
White Balance
Moving on, did you know that white isn’t white? The colour white depends on colour of light you shine on it. So if I take a white sheet of paper and shine an orange light on it, the paper becomes orange.
Different lights have different colours to them, for example daylight can be seen as quite blue where as tungsten, like you would find in an old non-led bulb is more orange. To correct for this, your camera has a white balance. I shoot in a daylight white balance setting to match the light coming in from out the window but if I changed it to tungsten just look what happens to my skin in the GIF below.
The white balance in your phone and most cameras is automatic meaning there is room for error. Let’s say you are filming inside with the lights on (tungsten) but you have daylight coming in from outside. Those 2 different colours of light are going to confuse your camera and it will usually pick the brightest source, the sunlight, which means your tungsten lit face will resemble a tangerine.
There is one main fix and 2 different ways of going about it, basically you only want one colour of light for your shot, so pick one. If you want to use daylight, turn off the light in the room, use the tip I gave you for exposure and use the sunlight to light your face. The alternative is to shut the curtains so that no daylight is getting in to confuse the camera.
Quality of light is a whole other subject which I cover in a future post but simply daylight usually looks better than tungsten so I would recommend turning your light off and using the light coming in from the window.
That’s A Wrap
To wrap up your face looks like a pumpkin either because your image is under exposed or the white balance is wrong. To fix underexposure use the brightest source of light, the light coming through your windows, to light your face. To make sure your camera will set the correct white balance, make sure there is only one colour of light in your scene.
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