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Photography Question 

BetterPhoto Member 		 

Shooting Photos of Different Ethnic groups


 
 
I have been in charge of the pictures at my church. We have some African ministers in our church, but my pictures of them always seem to dark and does not get their facial characteristics. I use a 35mm Nikon with a flash and I do have extra lights that I can use, but I have not been to successful. How can I resolve this problem with photographing people of different ethnics?


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March 04, 2003

 

Jon Close 		  If you are using print film, your exposures are probably good and the lab is printing the pictures too dark. I'd take the negatives back and have them reprinted, telling them the problem.


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March 06, 2003

 

Jeff S. Kennedy 		  It is possible that the lab could just reprint them paying more attention to their skin detail. But it is also common that black skin requires an extra stop of light to bring out detail. Next time try overexposing by a stop. If the shots still come out too dark then you definitely need to talk to your lab. They are not making the necessary corrections during printing.


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March 08, 2003

 

Gail Hammer 		  I have had experience photographing people with very dark skin, i.e. wedding photography and have had good results doing the following: I take an incident reading which I set my camera to and I change the 400 ASA reading to 160. This advice came from a former photography teacher and it really worked. Black skin definitely needs more exposure!


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March 12, 2003

 

Jeff S. Kennedy 		  LOL! Sorry Gail, I couldn't help myself. Here's why I'm laughing. If you take an incident reading and then set your camera to that reading it makes no difference what ISO you set your camera to if you keep the same settings as your incident reading. The ISO setting on your camera has no effect on exposure. It only effects your metering.

Now, if you're using ISO 400 film and you set your meter to 160 then meter with that setting you will overexpose by a little over a stop. This will help with the exposure of darker skin. The thing to be carful with is what you meter. If you meter the dark skin you will probably overexpose by about 3 stops.

If you are taking a reflective reading I suggest leaving your ISO at the normal setting (whatever you determine that to be for the film and equipment you are using) and meter directly off the skin of your subject. This will give you a reading that will overexpose the shot by a stop or two depending upon how dark the skin is.


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March 12, 2003

 

Gail Hammer 		  I guess what I meant was that if I was using ISO 400 film and took an incident reading with my light meter, I changed the ISO 400 to ISO 160 on the meter. The dark skin came out o.k. and so did the background - even the white wedding gown.


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March 12, 2003

 

Jeff S. Kennedy 		  OK, that makes more sense. I kind of figured that's what your teacher meant even if that's not what you said. :-)))


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March 12, 2003

 
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