"Fake Tan" or "Fake News"?

Area of Science:

• Dermatology
• Image Analysis
• Forensic Science

Background:

• Assessing human skin tone is crucial in various fields, including dermatology and forensic image analysis.
• Digital image manipulation can alter perceived skin coloration, necessitating objective analysis methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate Donald Trump's skin color from available internet images.
• To compare his estimated skin color with natural Caucasian skin tans and sunless tanning ranges.
• To investigate potential digital alterations in the analyzed images.

Main Methods:

• Skin color estimation from 70 internet images and a specific "twitter tan line" image.
• Comparison of estimated skin colors against established datasets of natural Caucasian tans and sunless tans.

Main Results:

• Donald Trump's estimated skin color is near the edge of the natural skin tan spectrum.
• His skin color falls well within the range typically produced by sunless tanning products.
• The skin color above the "tan line" in the analyzed image is outside the natural human skin color gamut, even for non-melanized albinos.

Conclusions:

• The analyzed skin tone is consistent with the use of sunless tanning.
• The unusual skin coloration above the tan line suggests possible digital image distortion or manipulation.