Photographing Black People

[SwissJon]

This is probably the wrong section for this, I'm sure the mods will move it appropriately.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not at all racist, quite the opposite. I'm looking for some tips on photographing people with dark complexions.

I live in Switzerland, which is mainly full of white and olive skinned people, and I rarely get the opportnity to photograph people with darker skin, especially very dark skinned people.

However on the train today I noticed someone with incredibly photogenic features and it got me thinking.. When ever I look at the photos I've taken of black people in the past (An ex girlfriend was Tanzanian, so I've a lot!) the thing that strikes me is that unless the person has distinctly brown skin, the photo generally turns out fairly featureless except for the eyes and mouth, and a lot of skin shine, like this one I found on line of the Nigerian - Goodluck Jonathan.



So what I would like are some tips on lighting, filters, and so on to allow me to take photographs of people of dark complexions and not lose their features, but retaining the incredible beauty that is contained in the range of colours we find in human skin tone.

I'm guessing that a darker background would help, and that a polorising might help draw out the different nuances of the skin tone while helping to reduce the shine. But really that's a guess, and I don't want to limit my photgraphs to white people just because they're easier subjects.

[gturner]

I am glad you wrote photographing and not shooting!

An easy way I found (when shooting candids) is to spot meter off the skin/ cheek and then dial down the Exposure comp 1/2 to 1 stop to save any highlights.

[SwissJon]

Thanks.. No, I'm not into shooting anything.. Guns scare the hell out of me, I just chose this photograph because it described my problem.. I've no comment on the subject of the photograph as I don't wish to turn this into a political discussion.

The reason I'm asking is that it's looking possible that I will get the opportunity through my company to take part in an childrens aid project in Africa somewhere (There are projcts everywhere that my company has a business presence, which is about half the African continent) and they know that I'm into photography, so the organiser mentioned subsidising part of my trip in exchange for some photographs of the project. I'm not interested in taking the money from a worthy cause and I said no to the subsidy, on the basis that I'd go anyway, but I'll happily take photographs as a part of my work over there, what a pleasure that would be. If I can get this right, I could be employed by my company on a regular basis to photograph their charity work all over the world.. What an opportunity!

[Biomech]

There's not a lot of black people around my city either - although one kid in WH Smiths who looks like he needs to be photographed :P - loads of bloody eastern europeans though - grumble -.....

The only advice I can offer is from the old military days - black people often have much shinier skin than white people, so you'll need to be wary of this if using flash etc. (by military days, I mean black skinned people still need to cam-up because they shine, not that's how you find them - oh how considerably racist I'm sounded right now lol :P)

[scootermcq]

Spot metering does work, but you really blow out the back ground. They are darker than a white person and without fill, we have a problem exposing a white & the background.

I treat darker skinned people the same as whites.... expose for the background and use fill flash.

The easiest way to avoid hot spots is off camera flash. Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection, so if you hit them on a angle, the light bounces harmlessly away from the camera.

[scootermcq]

The other reason that spot metering can be a problem, is you will really blow out a wedding dress if you expose for a face.

[Jim Bryant]

Depending on just how dark their skin is I either open up one or two stops.

[audiman90]

When I was just starting out in the 60s in south London, there were a lot of Jamaican immigrants who all seemed to want to get married. The problem that I encountered was they considered themselves to be white and would not accept that they were coloured. So I had to print their wedding photos( B&W at the time) with their skin as white as possible, or they would not accept the the photos.
Since then I have learned it's OK to make their skin lighter, but never darker.

[SwissJon]

Thanks for the sensible answers.

Scott.. I notice you shot with a green background, did was that just because it happened to be there and was pretty, or did you meter for it to be a similar light intensity as the couple, if you see what I mean?

I think things have moved on a little Audiman. My ex was very proud of her skin colour, unlike Jacko, and was only too pleased to be represented as the proud black woman she was. She was far more interested In ensuring the snapshots I took managed to show her features.

You're right about skin shine, I'll try the off camera idea.

[Jim Bryant]

skin shine.....it's a real killer here in the Pacific Northwest. Everyone is pale due to the lack of sunny days.