how to photograph coloured people

[chrisburke]

technically white is not a color... its a tone...

 

[Aye-non Oh-non Imus]

You fix this by adjusting your camera's exposure compensation. That's the button that has this symbol +/-
.

That is probably as correct an answer as there is. You could also use reflectors to direct the source light for the darker portions of the skin. The oily or sheen associated is probably a post process which someone else will have to answer.

firstly i wouldnt at all say i was "narky" mainly because I don't know what that word means...

oh, you funny too.............. if you don't know what it means, how on earth do you know you're not?

 

[ANDS!]

technically white is not a color... its a tone...

Light tones are indeed a reflection of brightness, with WHITE being the brightest a color can get. But "white" is most definitely a "color" simply due to its accepted use in the vernacular of Art Linguistics.

Not that this has anything to do with anything.

 

[fwellers]

"white" ones are coloured as well

I read a history of South Africa, and for them the term Colored means mixed race. There was a lot of interbreeding between the dutch and the Indonesian/Balinesian people. Those were the "colored' people.

 

[Pugs]

What a world we live in, please enlighten those of us from planet earth how to address this issue, the OP was obviously being as polite as possible but the PC police are everywhere these days. H

Uh,

You'll note that I edited my post immediately. And if you think that it's PC to expect people to try to be respectful to each other and not casually drop loaded language without context, then we have grossly different views of the world.

i know what colored people mean in your context but i didn't mean it i just referred to colored people "Indians" :hugs:

Hi,

Thank you for the follow up. It wasn't needed. I jumped the gun in my reaction because of MY cultural context and experiences which clearly are not yours.

As far as trying to photograph folks with dark skin, Dubious Drewski has posted the advice that I would give. The old adage, "expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights" applies here. In this case, the "shadows" are the darker skintones.

Try adjusting the EV compensation and/or spot metering the face. I shoot digitally and in RAW format. In Photoshop I adjust the "Fill Light", "Contrast", and "Brightness" when I first open the file if facial features appear too dark.

The suggestions of using a reflector are solid, too.