Red Hour

Eight shades of red, one gelled key light, and a set that goes dark between frames.

Rougeline

Client

Rougeline

Location

Studio 1, Paris

Lens

85 mm · f/5.6 · 1/250

Lighting

Gelled fresnel key, black flags, a practical red wash

The brief, the light, the result

Red is the hardest colour to photograph honestly. Under a red wash it turns to orange or to mud, so we split the job in two: gelled mood light for the portraits and a colour-managed white set for the lips themselves.

Every shade was measured on set against the physical bullet and matched on the tethered screen before we moved on. The retoucher sat next to the camera for all four days.

The launch went from brief to shelves in four weeks, and not one of the eight shades had to be corrected after print.