The Screen Player's Make-Up 



What the Camera Does to Your Face 

 By Horace A. Fuld 



ANY textbook on light will tell you 

 /-\ that white light is a composition 

 of rays forming what is known as 

 the spectrum, and ranging from violet 

 and blue through green, yellow and 

 orange to red. There are also rays and 

 colors on each end of the spectrum, for 

 instance, ultra-violet on the violet end, 

 not visible to the human eye. The rain- 

 bow is a common example of the spec- 

 trum. When light strikes an object cer- 

 tain of these rays are absorbed. The 

 unabsorbed are reflected, and the pro- 

 portion of the reflected rays gives the 

 object its color. Therefore light is a 

 question of absorption and reflection. 



will be responsible for a chemical change 

 in the salt, the extent of the change 

 depending upon the brilliancy of the 

 object. 



The film is almost as sensitive to vio- 

 let rays as it is to white light itself. Blue 

 diminishes the sensitiveness but little. 

 With the greens and the yellows we be- 

 gin to notice a decided diminution. In 

 other words the film is most sensitive to 

 the violet end of the spectrum and least 

 so to the reddish colors. This explains 

 at once why red hair photographs black, 

 for the film is almost entirely unaffected 

 by these reddish rays. 



Two more factors influence the use of 



At left, J. Frank Glendon without make-up. Note the natural darkness of the skin. In 

 middle, the same actor properly made up. Flesh tint lightens the tone of his face to the 

 proper shade for motion-picture work. At right, the same make-up overdone, showing too 

 much red on the face, eyes too heavily lined, eyebrows too black and too much red on the lips 



When light comes in contact with a brick 

 all the red rays are reflected, which gives 

 the eye the impression we call red. The 

 corn flower, on the other hand, is blue 

 because virtually all rays except blue and 

 yellow are entirely absorbed. This, in 

 brief, is the theory of color. 



The ingredient common to every form 

 of photograi)hic film is a silver salt, in 

 emulsion form, si)read on a celluloid 

 base. When white light is admitted 

 through the shutter of the camera it 

 strikes the iodide or bromide of silver 

 and reduces it to a metallic state. Thus, 

 in photographing a scene, light objects 



colors in camera work. These are re- 

 flected light and intensity. When light 

 strikes an object, so that some of it is 

 absorbed while a portion is reflected to 

 produce color, still another portion is re- 

 flected, without any change, as white 

 light. This is known as reflected light. 

 Illuminating the object enables us to 

 ])hotograph. as well as see it. 



All these facts must be borne in mind 

 by motion-picture actors. The colors 

 that actors use in their make-ups differ. 

 .At one studio, for instance, red in vary- 

 ing shades is the favorite, with no special 

 reason apparently ; at another, blues are 



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