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Me · August 3rd 09, 12:23 AM posted to rec.photo.digital.slr-systems

John A. wrote:
On Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:35:57 +1200, Me wrote:

David Kilpatrick wrote:
wrote:
i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix of
skin; is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral grey
would be more appropriate ..

tia

steve

That was in the days of colour negative printing. If you used a brown to
grey background, which actually looks best, the auto colour balance of
the printing might produce cold skin tones (grey not so big a problem,
but any warm colours could turn the skin blue or green in tint).

To avoid this a lot of professionals used blue backgrounds, not too
strong in colour, for stuff like school portraits where cheaper
automated printing would be used. This kept the skin colours warm.

In digital photography using fixed WB you can choose any background
colour or density you like for portraits. Neutrals have benefits, they
don't cast unwanted flare-related light into shadows, or reflected light
in the studio. Strong colours call for special care in the studio, and
good lenses with efficient coatings. For example, if you shoot on a
green backgroun, don't extend it in front of the subject - cover the
floor between the camera and subject with white paper. This prevents a
green cast being thrown up into the shadows. But if you want the pic to
look like an outdoor shot on a lawn, don't use the white paper, the
green shadow cast will look natural.

Interesting and quite sensible.
So if you're using a commercial lab to print these days, and allowing
them to make colour adjustments, does the same apply?
Or is software used to make automatic colour adjustments "smarter" these
days in identifying and preserving skin tones?

That's the sort thing embedded color profiles are for. If your monitor
is profiled your prints should come out as close to the displayed
colors as reasonably and physically possible.

Sure, but many labs are set up to ignore embedded profile, assume sRGB,
and adjust colour automatically. If you talk colour management to the
staff, I expect that their eyes will glaze over, and if you persist,
they'll probably call security and have you removed.