Questions about skin tone color. An interview with Mantas Šatkus. Part 1

What would you consider an ideal or "appealing" skin tone in the context of stage and studio lighting? What factors influence how we perceive it?

Achieving the right skin tone is never straightforward. The performer’s face is arguably the most critical element of the visual image—especially in broadcast, where close-ups dominate. The face needs to look flawless—not only to the live audience but also to the camera.

When I work with the lighting team, I often ask for lighting that makes the actor’s face look natural, with a tone that feels pleasant. I joke that we’re after a "mid-summer tan"—a warm, amber-golden hue. Of course, factors like makeup and camera settings play a role, but smart lighting is always a partner to the makeup department. If the face appears too pale or drifts into an unwanted hue, the entire character can feel off.

We tend to perceive skin more positively when it aligns with tones associated with health and vitality. That’s why front light often carries a subtle "cosmetic warmth"—especially for performers with fair skin. And just to be clear, we’re not talking about dramatic or stylized lighting here, but basic key lighting that shapes the performer’s presence on stage or in frame.

Lighting fixtures from Ayrton—such as the Diablo or Khamsin series—are especially useful for this. They allow precise color temperature tuning and offer excellent color fidelity (high CRI), which is critical when working with skin tones. Thanks to smooth tonal gradation and strong color stability, they help achieve that perfect "appealing" skin tone that reads naturally both on stage and on camera.

How do you approach selecting color temperature when lighting actors on stage or in a studio setting? How does it influence the perception of skin tone?

My approach always depends on a few key questions:

• Is the event happening indoors or outdoors?
• If outdoors—what time of day is it?
• What type of fixtures dominate the setup, and what is their native color temperature?
• Are LED screens, projectors, or other content sources in play?
• Are there any "natural" light sources like campfires, torches, or candles?

Most of the time, the scene and its content dictate the rules. If LED screens or lights with a color temperature of 5600K–6500K dominate, then the camera’s white balance is typically set to match that—so the front light needs to align accordingly.

Warm front light (2800K–3500K) can soften facial texture and add a gentle visual smoothness—it’s almost like a form of makeup. But this only works in environments without cool-toned scenography or LED walls. And nowadays, that’s increasingly rare.

Ayrton luminaires offer great flexibility for this kind of fine-tuning—both in color temperature and in white point adjustments (CCT shift). They’re also ideal for smoothly blending warm and cool light sources. Once the camera’s base color temperature is defined and white balance is set, I usually place two stand-ins with different skin tones in front of the camera. Then, together with the lighting team, we adjust the front lighting by eye, using a reference monitor to find the most flattering tone for the actors.

You can test Ayrton fixtures and evaluate their flexibility and stability in the VGD Project showroom in Riga.