Skin Tone

Tone: An extreme example perhaps, but this shows how makeup was done for old black and white formats the tone of the makeup was considered, rather than the actual colour.

Tone = Hue + grey. Tone is basically how light or dark a colour is and “tonality” refers to the lightness or darkness of a colour. Adding grey to a colour creates a graduation in tone. This is particularly important in black and white photography, as you see tones rather than colour. For example, a light orange and a light blue could have the same tonality and, therefore, would look the same on black and white film. Makeup for black and white photography is different to working in colour formats, you have to understand how a colour will look in black and white. For example, a red cheek colour would look darker than the foundation, so you wouldn’t apply it to the apple of the cheek, as this would create a darker patch. You would apply blush under the cheek to create a shadow and to define. You could actually do a makeup for black and white using any colours, so long as you understand the tonality of the colours you are using, it will work just fine!