I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions to offer on photographing people with contrasting skin tones. I will be taking some black and white photos for a friend and her new husband. She is very fair-skinned and he is quite dark. The photos will be candid shots at their wedding reception. I will be using a Minolta 2xi with a Minolta Maxxium 3500xi flash. I would love to keep the camera on it's automatic setting, but would be open to fiddling with the shutter speed and apature if it could result in better photos. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Eva

-- Eva (anderliz@hotmail.com), May 31, 2002

Answers

Eva,

I would suggest two choices: Ilford XP2, or a conventional film like HP5. XP2 is a chromogenic film that is developed in the c-41 color process, Set your asa at 250 and you will get a very long range of tones. You can expose it at other asa rating too. This film is also a favorite of wedding photographers because it preserves the details on a white dress. This film is very reliable and would be a great choice.

If you like to develop your own negatives, use the developer PMK. HP5 gives great skin tones and PMK will give the longest range of tones available in the film and extremely fine grain.

Another bit of advice I can offer is to test the film in similar lighting conditions to see if it will give you the results you want. Then you can be confident in the important situations.

Good Luck, Greg

-- Greg Rust (kgeicrust@aol.com), June 02, 2002.

Eva,

I should mention that Kodak makes a good chromogenic film called T400CN and uses the C-41 process.

Another thing to try is a green filter to get the skin tones you want.

Greg

-- Greg Rust (kgeicrust@aol.com), June 02, 2002.

Eva,

In doing work with school aged subjects of various races, I've found that light and dark skin take the same exposure. You may have to do some work on the print to lighten the dark skin or darken the light, depending on the end results. As with any photography the lighting is the key to good pictures. Glare from the forehead of a white subject is harmful, as is the shadows of a dark skin. Be careful to see your subjects well in the light that you have.

chuck k

-- chuck k (ckleesattel@yahoo.com), June 25, 2002.

Eva: I may be a bit tardy with this post, but you have THE classic exposure problem. As you know, every light meter in the world is caibrated to the standard of "middle gray". They will expose the bride and her weddng dress as a middle gray, and the groom in his dark suit as middle gray. What to do? First, either meter a mid-tone area, (grass, a macadam road, grey card, etc.)lock your exposure, and immediately take the picture, or use your Camera's manual program, and take spot readings from the light skinned person, preset your exposure, and change settings as the light direction or intensity changes. With XP2 or Kodak film, and the exposure index set at 250, that reading should provide fairly accurate skin tone for the light skinned person, and the rest of the values will be relatively correct. Use TTL flash set at about -1 stop, and shoot like mad! What you are using here is a variation of th old LIFE photographer's trick for exposing skin tones properly; Light reading=middle gray, Caucasian skin is 1 stop lighter than middle gray, add light--open up one stop for proper skin balance. Dark skin is darker than middle gray., so subtract light--stop down to bring the skin tone closer to reality. You shouldn't have to go more than one stop either way to get reasonably proper skin tone. Both together, Pick one subject, Usually the lighter--my personal preference--place the exposure, and the other subject will be somewhere close to correct exposure. I'm not sure if this has helped, or if I told you how to build a watch when you only asked the time. I hope it has helped. CC

-- Carl Crosby (humminboid@aol.com), June 30, 2002.